| I like to read articles and books written by medical | | | | prolonging a patient's life for three months to a year |
| doctors. Needless to say, sometimes I am amazed, | | | | is considered an achievement.o Achieving a cure is |
| baffled and surprised to learn that some of them are | | | | like striking a jackpot!o Not all cancers can be cured. |
| rather forthright, blunt and honest when making | | | | As doctors, we try our besto to cure those who can |
| comments about their own medical profession - | | | | be cured,o to control the disease for those whose |
| especially when talking about the medical treatments | | | | lives can be extended, and to comfort those for |
| for cancer. I cannot help but wonder why these | | | | whom little can be done. |
| people say such things. What have these people to | | | | To the above doctors, we salute you for being |
| gain if what they write is not true? Absolutely | | | | honest and truthful. Thank you for your most |
| nothing. Perhaps what they say is true then. That is | | | | esteemed opinions. |
| moral integrity. These are honorable people and they | | | | Points to Ponder |
| know what they are saying. It is wonderful that they | | | | 1. Cancer patients wish to known -- Is there a cure |
| dared speak up and shared their thoughts with us. | | | | for cancer? Is it cure that you want, when you go |
| Let me give you three examples of such great men. | | | | and see your doctors? Or are you just happy with |
| Dr. Seymour Brenner, radiologist, Brooklyn, New York, | | | | being able to live only 3 to 12 months longer? |
| USA. He said: "The frustration of cancer is that we | | | | 2. Is finding a cure like going to a casino trying to |
| really don't know what we are doing ... it is a | | | | strike a jackpot? Where then is the so-called science |
| frustrating thing to go to school for thirty years, to | | | | in medicine? What is the difference between seeing a |
| work for twenty, thirty years and at the age of | | | | medium, who pulls out a stick / card and predicts |
| sixty not know what you're doing!" | | | | your luck? |
| After thirty years of practising radiology Dr. Seymour | | | | 3. If cure is like striking a jackpot - who is the |
| Brenner concluded: "We're making very little progress | | | | gambler? Oncologists gambling with patients lives and |
| ... Billions of dollars and countless work hours have | | | | patients are the "gambling chips"? |
| been expended to achieve something and nothing | | | | 4. Patients should ask their doctors this question: "Can |
| has been achieved." | | | | you cure my cancer?" Before you gamble your life |
| Dr. Bernie Siegel, neurosurgeon and teacher at Yale | | | | away or your life's saving away - ask! Know what |
| University (quoting from Cancer and Consciousness | | | | you are going into before you commit yourself to |
| by Barry Bryant. pg. 31) said: "Too many doctors are | | | | any invasive procedures. |
| depressed because they only see their failures - all | | | | 5. Pateints wonder if going for holistic healing not A |
| you know is that everyone has cancer, everybody | | | | BETTER OPTION? Is this non-toxic, non-invasive |
| dies. And it just wears you out." | | | | option not an effective, cheaper and more humane |
| Dr. Ang Peng Tiam, medical director of the Parkway | | | | way of managing cancer than the so-called scientific |
| Cancer Centre, is Singapore President's Scholar and a | | | | medicine? |
| leading senior consultant medical oncologist. He is also | | | | I know of many patients who were given 3 or 6 |
| vice-chairman of the medical sub-committee of the | | | | months to live went on to live for many more years |
| Breast Cancer Foundation. In his hospital's website, he | | | | without any problem after taking going for alternative |
| said:o Oncology is not like other medical specialties | | | | or complementary healing. |
| where doing well is the norm.o In oncology, even | | | | |