Live Life Team
Alternative cancer treatments include substitute and complementary therapies for cancer that do not have the approval of a regulating body, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Generally, these treatments do not have a factual basis and concerned authorities question their safety. Alternative cancer treatments are classified into groups. They are untested treatments offered as an alternative to standard cancer treatment and alternative treatments offered not as a substitute but as a complement to standard treatment. These are principally for comfort and to alleviate symptoms. Other alternative treatments include devices, herbs, mixtures, and chemicals that have been proposed as treatments in the past but were unproven based on clinical tests.
Usually, alternative cancer treatments are nutritional and include macrobiotic diets and other therapies like mind-body intervention, several pharmacologic treatments, bioelectromagnetics, and herbs. The prevalence and popularity of various treatments differs widely by area.
Numerous examples of alternative cancer treatments have no substantial proof for their efficacy in treating cancer. Some of these have provided benefits as complementary treatments and reduce pain. Vitamin C is the most controversial and well-known among these treatments. At present, it is undergoing a laboratory test based on in-vitro determinations and theoretical assumptions with regards to its in vivo efficacy. There are very few manufacturers of alternative drugs for cancer that conduct controlled clinical tests for their products. They only perform occasional initial trials or adjuvant therapy tests. Due to this fact, alternative cancer treatments usually rely on anecdotal or testimonial facts. In the United States, the FDA prohibits manufacturers of untested products from claiming effectiveness of their therapies for cancer.
