Questioning Chemotherapy [Paperback]

Ralph W. Moss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 8, 1996

A revealing critique of chemotherapy, this book looks objectively at chemo's successes and failures.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

Hi! I'm Ralph Moss, author of Questioning Chemotherapy. I want to tell you how and why I came to write this book.

I started as a believer in chemotherapy. As a science writer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, I wrote articles praising the latest advances in chemotherapy. I was impressed by the then-emerging cures for Hodgkin's disease, acute lymphocytic leukemia and some other relatively rare cancers. At the same time, I began to learn how skeptical many good scientists were about chemotherapy's future.

The major objection to "chemo" was that these drugs did not discriminate between normal and cancerous cells, but attacked all rapidly dividing cells . One scientist described this method as "trying to melt a patient's left ear , while leaving the right one alone." It seemed particularly inappropriate in the treatment of solid tumors of adults, which are often slow-growing.

Because chemotherapy drugs were general cellular poisons, they could be terribly toxic. They were also very expensive for patients and for society as a whole. When I learned about the links between the pharmaceutical industry and the cancer establishment (later detailed in my book, The Cance r Industry) I understood the commercial reason that such an inadequate modality was so heavily promoted.

In 1989, a German biostatistician named Ulrich Abel, Ph.D. published a groundbreaking monograph called "Chemotherapy of Advanced Epithelial Cancer. It made few waves in the U.S. and soon went out of print. In this excellent work, however, Dr. Abel rigorously demonstrated that chemotherapy had never been scientifically proven to extend life through randomized clinical trials (RCTs) in the vast majority of "epithelial cancers." These are the common types of carcinoma that affect most cancer patients in the Western world.

Some years later, in response to many requests, I decided to write a critical book about chemotherapy (a sort of companion piece to Cancer Therapy). I took Abel's out-of-print work as my starting point, but also consulted the work of many other students of chemotherapy. In this book, I update statistics and speak about all cancers and not just carcinomas. I go into depth on the politics and economics of the chemotherapy industry, on the biases, fallacies and frauds that occur, and on ways of warding off the sometimes catastrophic side effects that accompany this treatment.

The essential point of the book is that one must question the measure of success in chemotherapy. Oncologists have tended to equate an increasing percentage of "responses" with progress. However, responses are generally measurements of tumor shrinkage, for as little as one month's duration. One cannot automatically assume that a response--even a complete response--will lead to increased survival. One must look for increased survival. Yet the number of cancers for which life prolongation through chemotherapy has been proven through randomized clinical trials is very small. (I do bend over backwards to point these out, when they occur.)

So when a doctor says her regimen yields a 40 percent response rate, "what exactly is she promising? A short-term shrinkage of tumors--or actual life-prolongation? What effect is this treatment likely to have on the patient's quality of life? And what is the cost?" It is only by obtaining information such as this that patients are able to make rational treatment choices. Questioning Chemotherapy is intended to help patients by providing them with a critical perspective on this now dominant modality.

Product Details

• Paperback: 214 pages
• Publisher: Equinox Press (October 8, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 188102525X
• ISBN-13: 978-1881025252
• Product Dimensions: 0.6 x 5.7 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #576,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

128 of 129 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book I've ever read on chemotherapy January 1, 1999

By Chet Day

Format:Paperback

Ralph Moss' "Questioning Chemotherapy" is a book that every person faced with cancer must read before submitting to toxic chemicals which may very well destroy the body's immune system.

Unlike many alternative health authors who base their conclusions on anecdotal evidence, Moss uses the medical establishment's own research to prove that in almost all instances chemotherapy is NOT a viable approach to improving cancer survival rates.

Moss also makes the important point that current cancer research has never bothered to examine the mental anguish, physical suffering, and poor quality of life endured by almost everyone whose doctors talk or scare them into undergoing chemotherapy.

Learning about the economics behind chemotherapy drives the final nail into the coffin of a "therpy" that educated people in the future will consider outrageous and reflective of the current dark ages of so-called modern medicine.

This is a must read book for anyone who wants to know the truth behind chemotherapy or anyone whose doctor wants to inject toxic chemicals into their bloodstream.

93 of 94 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Challenge your oncologist August 23, 2004

By Bill Henderson

Format:Paperback

It takes a lot of courage for a cancer patient to challenge the "expert" knowledge of his or her cancer doctor. This book gives you that ability. Life-saving? Indeed.

Before you submit to any cancer treatment, you need to read all of this book. It is comprehensive and detailed about every type of chemotherapy and every type of cancer. Side effects are horrific and natural substances which offset them are actually discouraged. Virtually nothing has changed since this book was published in 1995 except some of the drug names.

In 2002, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that in the previous year, the average oncologist had made $253,000 of which 75% was profit on chemotherapy drugs administered in his/her office. Yet, surveys of oncologists by the Los Angeles Times and the McGill Cancer Center in Montreal show that from 75% to 91% of ongologists would refuse chemotherapy as a treatment for themselves or their families. Why? Too toxic and not effective. Yet, 75% of cancer patients are urged to take chemo by their oncologists.

Dr. Moss includes information on which cancers, all of them rare, chemotherapy works. This list has not changed since it was published by the National Cancer Institute in 1971. One of these is Embryonal Testicular Cancer, for which cyclist Lance Armstrong is the poster boy. Another is Wilm's Tumor. My 3-year old daughter was completely healed of Wilm's Tumor by removal of a kidney and treatment with chemotherapy 45 years ago.

Don't be fooled by terms like "response rate" or "5-year survival." For metastatic cancer (the only kind that kills), the success rate of chemotherapy (defined as long-term remission) is 3%.

Get Dr.... Moss' book and dramatically improve your chances of recovery with the knowledge he gives you here. Read more ›

49 of 51 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Every patient diagnosed with cancer has to have this book! January 19, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Ralph Moss provides the most authoritative criticisms and evaluation of alternative cancer therapies. People should begin with Questioning Chemotherapy and then move onto any of his other books. The other book that should follow is John Boik's Cancer & Natural Medicine

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Knowledge is Power April 8, 2004

By David R Holmes

Format:Paperback

(...)The appendix is packed with information in regards to a few dozen of the more commonly used or controversial cytotoxic drugs currently used. However, the issues he brings up concerning the quality of life of the cancer patient who will most probably very miserable and depleted for extended periods of time when using chemotherapy in conjunction with the fact that there are alternative treatment modes out there in the marketplace that no one is compiling any hard data on is argueably this books finest contribution. This is compelling and thought provoking imnformation for anyone in this position to consider well. Knowledge is power and reading this book may help guard the reader against naively developing a false sense of hope based upon the party line responses of the orthodox medical establishment to the concerns of patients who are struggling with the potential prospect of a significantly shortened life.

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Get this book February 18, 2007

By Sarah

Format:Paperback

If you or someone you know has cancer, get this book.

My mom was diagnosed with cancer 5 years ago. Her oncologist tried to manipulate her into getting chemo and radiation. Even the radiologist who had been consulted said that radiation would not help her cancer.

He had an agenda. He didn't care if it would help her at all. He was the director of the cancer center, you see. He was motivated by greed and the desire to make everyone bow to his wishes.

She still refused chemo due to the information I gave her.

A few years after her diagnosis, she was written up in a journal because her cancer was so rare. In this journal they said that her kind of cancer had NEVER responded to chemo or radiation!

There was no known evidence of chemo being a help to her, yet he was determined to shove it down her throat.

It is 5 years since diagnosis and she is fine. She takes a lot of cleansing herbs and Chinese herbs and is healthier now than she was 5 years ago.

Do not let the cancer industry manipulate and scare you into taking POISON. Chemo is not medicine. It is poison. It is a race to see if the chemo kills you first or if the cancer does.

Usually people die of the effects of the chemo and radiation, not the cancer. Yet family members are so misinformed that even if the patient does not want chemo, the family begs them to take it.

Update:

September 2009. Mom is still alive and never took chemo. In 2 years, I've watched 3 women in their 40's die from chemo.

I love this book:

Cancer: Step Outside the Box, 4th Edition

Update: April 2013. Mom is still alive and has done no chemo.... Since I wrote this review, there are more books on natural ways to heal cancer.

The Gerson Therapy: The Proven Nutritional Program for Cancer and Other Illnesses

Knockout: Interviews with Doctors Who Are Curing Cancer--And How to Prevent Getting It in the First Place

A Cancer Battle Plan I particularly like this book, because it is a story by a woman who had chemo and radiation and was sent home to die. She recovered. The chemo she had damaged her liver and I believe she died about 8 years later from the damage the chemo did. But, she overcame her cancer. Her husband runs a health clinic in their hometown. Read more ›