-
Reviews
Back to Reviews
-
Other Comments:
In this article, the authors briefly discuss some limitations of conventional cancer therapy (surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy) and review ten alternative experimental cancer treatments that could be used to improve or even replace such conventional therapies.
I believe that this article could be useful for readers who want to get some general ideas about cancer. I consider, however, that this article is incomplete and contain some statements that are incorrect or, at least, not accurate. For instance, the second paragraph of the Conclusion section is imprecise and contains some statements that are incorrect. It is incorrect to say that chemotherapy is only used to treat symptoms, as it is successfully used to treat many patients with specific types of advanced cancer (see: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12835671 ). The criteria for including a possible therapy in the experimental cancer treatments discussed by the authors are not clear. For instance, the authors include the phytochemical quercetin as one of the ten alternative experimental cancer treatments and do not include other phytochemicals (e.g. curcumin, epigallocatechingallate) that are currently ongoing clinical trials for the prevention and treatment of several cancer types (see: http://clinicaltrials.gov/ ). The authors should carefully revise the statements they make in their manuscript. They should also define the criteria they follow to include an experimental cancer treatment in their review.
Several websites could be included in a possible revised version of the manuscript to help readers find robust information about cancer, cancer treatments, and/or alternative and complimentary therapies. I would highly recommend the NCI website as a reliable source of information about cancer.
Basic cancer information:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/understandingcancer/cancer
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/understandingcancer/cancer/UNDERCAN.PDFTypes of treatment:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/treatment/types-of-treatment
Cancer information on Complementary and Alternative Medicine:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam -
Competing interests:
No
-
Invited by the author to review this article? :
No -
Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
Yes
-
References:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=search&db=pubmed&term=Lopez-Lazaro%20M%5Bau%5D&dispmax=100 -
Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:
Cancer Researcher
- How to cite: Lopez-Lazaro M .Review on "Experimental Cancer Treatment: An Emerging Approach "[Review of the article 'Experimental Cancer Treatment: An Emerging Approach ' by Prajapat R].WebmedCentral 2010;2(3):WMCRW00551
- Other Comments: The article give very significant knowledge about cancer and their treatment
-
Invited by the author to review this article? :
Yes -
Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
Yes
-
References:
None -
Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:
I AM ASSISTANT PROFESSOR HAVING 2 YEAR EXPERIENCE. I HAVE PUBLISHED 3 INTRNATIONAL PAPER - How to cite: Bhandari M .EXPERIMENTAL CANCER TREATMENT : AN EMERGING APPROACH[Review of the article 'Experimental Cancer Treatment: An Emerging Approach ' by Prajapat R].WebmedCentral 2010;1(11):WMCRW00102
- Other Comments: the work is good enough to increase the knowledge.
-
Invited by the author to review this article? :
No -
Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
Yes
-
References:
None -
Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:
None - How to cite: Prajapat R .work is good enough to increase the knowledge.[Review of the article 'Experimental Cancer Treatment: An Emerging Approach ' by Prajapat R].WebmedCentral 2010;1(10):WMCRW0073
The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate the various options in treating cancer.
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes- It would be a great lecture in a medical school.
The authors first present the various therapies which are considered to be traditional or conventional treatment. They then present various experimental cancer treatments. The authors state that the three methods of treating cancer which are considered to be proven (chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation) may sometimes shorten life in the patient. This is a very informative article.
Also, examples of alternative treatment are presented by the authors and include iscador, gerson, essiac, and electromagnetic therapies. The authors state that the effectiveness of chemotherapy is often limited by its toxicity to other tissues in the body. They also note the damage to normal tissue which radiation can cause.
None
No
No
No
Clinical associate professor