A list of alternative cancer therapies and a Good Thinking Society

Recently I worked on an interesting project with the Good Thinking Society.

The Good Thinking Society are a great charity who are small in size but are making great waves. The charity was founded by Simon Singh and their goal is “to encourage curiosity and promote rational thinking”.

One thing the Good Thinking Society does excellently is working in the medical field – they have been fundamental in changing the environment of NHS funding for treatments which lack scientific support for their use.

In 2010, The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee reported that homeopathy is no better than placebo. Despite this, this scientifically implausible treatment continued to be funded on the NHS to the tune of three to five million pounds per annum. This is a figure that the Good Thinking Society determined after working systematically through each CCG in the UK to identify which of them continued to fund homeopathy and how much they spent. Good Thinking Society supported many of those CCGs still funding homeopathy in reviewing their funding policies and succeeded in initiating the removal of this funding in many areas across the UK. They have also been instrumental in NHS England calling for homeopathy to be added to the NHS Blacklist of items which cannot be prescribed by GPs.

Good Thinking Society have some excellent resources on specific alternative therapies which you can find under their heading ‘Good Thinking About’. In particular they have an excellent primer on Gerson Therapy, a ‘treatment’ promoted as a cure for cancer which I have discussed here before.

Recently, I helped the Good Thinking Society compile a list of treatments which might be offered by alternative practitioners to vulnerable cancer patients. The list brings together a summary of the evidence for each treatment and outlines some of the potential risks and dangers of those treatments.

Here is a sample from this list:

Go take a look at their website and the list of alternative cancer treatments. And while you’re there – donate to their cause. They exist on donations and they need your support.

Author: Dr Alice Howarth

I am a science loving PhD cancer researcher with a passion for science accessibility. I like cell biology, scientific skepticism and equality. For almost 5 years I have been an integral part of The Merseyside Skeptics society - a non-profit organisation which aims to promote scientific reasoning, nationally and internationally. I am co-host of the successful podcast, Skeptics with a K where I discuss topical science stories on a fortnightly basis. I am a science communicator to a wide variety of audiences from school age children to interested members of the public and academic researchers. View all posts by Dr Alice Howarth