Do cancer patients have a higher risk of death after choosing alternative therapies such as Chinese herbal medicine?

The latest research shows that cancer patients seem to have a higher risk of death after choosing alternative therapies such as traditional Chinese medicine. At present, medical treatment has not developed a better method, so we can only choose conventional treatment.

Conventional therapy refers to curing cancer through surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and hormone therapy, but there are many alternative therapies, including herbs, acupuncture, massage, vitamins, yoga probiotics and some diets, including Chinese medicine. The difference between them is mainly reflected in the use of treatment technology. Complementary therapy is a method other than conventional therapy and can only be used as a substitute for adjuvant therapy. And replacement therapy is to completely replace conventional therapy. In fact, there is no scientific evidence to show the effectiveness of complementary replacement therapy.

Yale University team published a study, which showed that patients with four common cancers, breast cancer, lung cancer, colorectal cancer and prostate cancer, refused conventional treatment and used alternative therapy, so the five-year survival rate became lower and the possibility of dying from cancer increased to 2.5 times. And many patients who choose to use alternative therapy, even if they survive, will eventually choose conventional therapy if their condition is found to deteriorate. Therefore, from all kinds of such research data, it is found that if cancer patients want to give up this routine treatment completely, the result is still very dangerous.

However, many people who use conventional therapy and complementary therapy still increase the risk of cancer, because although complementary therapy itself does not increase the risk of death of cancer patients, it is because they delay or refuse to use conventional therapy. So it will increase this risk. Nowadays, many experts show that doctors should try their best to recommend some proven therapies for those cancer patients who are likely to be cured, instead of relying on complementary and alternative therapies as the main treatment for cancer.