Cancer Therapy Critique

Evaluation of “Choosing alternative cancer therapy doubles risk of death, study says”

The purpose of writing this report is to evaluate the article “Choosing alternative cancer therapy doubles risk of death, study says” written by Susan Scutti, published in August 16, 2017. This article will decide whether there is enough evidence to convince the reader, whether alternative medicine doubles the risk of death in a cancer patient, and to know what kind of audience the author is trying to convey. There is a study published in the ‘Journal of the National cancer institute’ that concludes that patients who prefer to take alternative therapies are doubling the risk of dying than ones who take conventional therapies. The article proves the main
The author uses studies published in the Journal of the National institute to demonstrate that patients refusing the conventional methods of cancer treatment are decreasing their chance for a cure. Without the use of conventional medicine, cancer advances to the lymph nodes and other parts of the body, increasing the spread of cancer (Scutti, 2017). The information provided in the article is correct but can be crossed referenced with other studies that show that medical professionals refuse alternative methods. There is an article that states that there is no education about alternative medicine because of a Flexner report. Due to an alliance between the American Medical Association and big business such as the Rockefellers and Carnegies from over 100 years ago, medical schools prohibit the study of alternative medicine but concentrate on prescription drugs for cancer treatments (Bollinger, 2016). That shows that doctors prefer to use conventional therapies because it is researched and studied. And ignore alternative therapy by reason of insufficient knowledge, not because of the ineffectiveness (Bollinger, 2016). Money is also a key factor in this case because therapies for cancer are expensive and most patients refuse treatments for the lack of money and low income. This article lacks the use of statisics to prove that patients are dying when using alternative therapy, there is no evidence to show the number of patients who refuse the conventional treatment and not survive. There are no testimonials from actual cancer patients that prove the articles main idea. The information provided by the author is organized using compare and contrast, such as the benefits of conventional medicine and the risk of using alternative