我曾經以為群眾的眼睛是亮的，歎息。化療可以用來做兩件事：1) 早期手術後協助治愈癌症；2）不能治愈癌症，但可控製病情發展

減少痛苦，延長生命。這是我的第一位博士後（現在在國內某大醫院做胸外科副主任）告訴我的。

有些不良醫生胡亂用藥牟利，不在討論範圍。


請參考一位網友的對化療的說明和其sister受苦杏仁素療法毒害的故事。

http://www.amazon.com/review/R3C8AVQPKD8VCH/ref=cm_cd_pg_pg4?ie=UTF8&asin=0912986387&cdForum=FxZIGBLAFGCGU7&cdPage=4&cdThread=Tx1U3YR0EXJMG0S&store=books#wasThisHelpful


hazelrah says:

有關化/放療的作用

It's impossible to have a dialogue with someone who claims that "there is no proof that radiation or chemo help cancer patients," because all the clinical trials and studies have proven otherwise. Regarding your statements that "breast cancer patients die four times faster when they get chemo" and "chemo patients died in four years on average while the women who did not get chemo lived an average of 16 years," either you are truly ignorant (which can be forgiven) or not so ignorant but instead intellectually dishonest. Chemo is given to breast cancer patients (as well as other cancer patients) for different reasons: In early stage cancer, it is used with surgery and sometimes radiation to effect a cure. In stage IV/metastatic cancer, it is used to prolong life, as a cure is essentially no longer considered possible at that point/stage. Regardless, in both cases, it prolongs life. Now to the intellectually dishonest part of your post and the need to use one's critical thinking skills: If patients who are diagnosed with breast cancer "die four times faster when they get chemo"--well, faster than what?? Faster than women who upon initial diagnosis were staged with the exact same stage and who didn't get chemo, or compared to women who had a DIFFERENT/WORSE/LATER stage upon initial diagnosis and who did get chemo? The point being, it's the STAGE of cancer at time of diagnosis that matters--that is the determinant of outcome/life expectancy, and many Stage I cancer patients do not even require chemotherapy (and hence don't receive it), because they ALREADY have a very good prognosis without it and are considered cured with surgery or surgery and radiation alone. Of course some women who get chemo (and who also have bigger tumors/more agressive tumors/later stage disease--hence, why they were recommended chemo in the first place) die faster than women with earlier stage breast cancers who do not have chemo. But, those who did not receive chemo did not live longer because of the fact that they didn't have chemo, they lived longer because THEY WERE DIAGNOSED WITH STAGE I CANCER/BREAST CANCER--WHICH ALREADY HAS A GOOD PROGNOSIS/OUTCOME, and thus doesn't require that chemo be given in the first place. In other words, a woman diagnosed with stage I breast cancer who is recommended only a lumpectomy and radiation and no chemo, will live longer than the average woman dxd with breast cancer who undergoes chemo, not because the chemo shortens her life, but because those who undergo chemo have either a later stage, larger tumor, more agressive tumor--and thus a worse prognosis. And here lies the problem with those that try to sell alternative/unproven medicine--they are intellectually dishonest and prey upon the medical ignorance and poor critical thinking skills of others, who cannot decipher the untrue statements they put forth.


有關其sister受苦杏仁素誤導的故事


In 2005 my sister, who was also quite healthy, was diagnosed with clinical stage I breast cancer, low grade, with a very good prognosis. Unfortunately, she refused surgery and all other recommended adjuvant treatment for her cancer(anti-hormone therapy/tamoxifen, possible chemo), refused to return to the surgeon and oncologist, and instead embarked on a course of naturopathic and alternative medicine, including an organic vegan diet, juicing and consuming carrots until her face literally turned yellow-orange, vitamin infusions, laetrile, insulin potentiation therapy, etc. She also walked miles every day (until she was too weak to walk). Over the course of the next 8 1/2 years, the lumps in her breast got bigger and bigger, the tumors even ulcerating/oozing through her breast, her arm began to swell with lymphedema from the lymph node involvement, and then she got bone pain, at which point we knew the cancer was metastatic (she wouldn't get scans because, well, radiation causes cancer, you know; such is the logic of those who have a propensity for alternative medicine). This all occurred over the course of 8 1/2 years from time of diagnosis. Oh, and she also thought Jesus was going to heal her. Well, guess what. Jesus didn't come through and neither did any of the alternative medicine treatments--which really aren't medicine at all, as alternative quite simply means there have been no controlled studies to prove their effectiveness. She spent approximately $100,000 dollars on these quack/worthless treatments that gave her false hope, which her insurance paid nothing for. My beautiful sister died a horrific death in January, cachectic/looking like a prisoner of war, gasping for air with her tongue hanging out, trying to hold onto her life/not go to sleep forever. That scene is forever imprinted in my mind. Unfortunately, she had a husband who had a propensity for alternative medicine and who encouraged her along this path of destruction throughout, instead of trying to get her to return to the doctors, and none of us could convince her otherwise. At her funeral, my brother-in-law said she lived LONGER because of the course she took (receiving no conventional treatment/only receiving alternative treatments and praying to God). My brother, who is an M.D., stood at the back, and every time my brother-in-law said something untrue about my sister's cancer, her prognosis, or the course of alternative medicine and God that she pursued, my brother shook his head "no." She left seven children behind, not to mention some devastated and angry family members (those of us who did not support what she did). Unfortunately, like my sister, you don't seem to understand the significance of staging in cancer. A stage III lung cancer, which your friend had, does not have a good prognosis even with conventional medical treatment. A stage I (as well as low-grade/non-aggressive) breast cancer, which my sister had, does have a good prognosis--that is why my sister lived 8 1/2 years in spite of leaving the tumors in place to spread/metasticize. My sister is dead because she refused conventional treatment (the surgery was the single-most important thing she could have done. We spent 8+ years watching her slowly spiral towards her death. Your friend did not die because she had conventional treatment or because she refused alternative treatment; she died because, like the vast majority of lung cancer patients, she was diagnosed with late-stage disease (my understanding is that most lung cancers are already metastatic/stage IV at the time of diagnosis, which means that they are not curable). With a Stage III diagnosis, unfortunately your friend did not have a good prognosis. It is unfortunate, but those are the facts.