Page 1207 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 April 1994
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MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General and Minister for Health) (4.14): Mr Deputy Speaker, I have heard Mr Stevenson's remarks. I am not an expert, but I will give the Assembly the benefit of the views of people who are. I would like to quote from the editorial in this month's Medical Journal of Australia entitled "On eye of newt and bone of shark - The dangers of promoting alternative cancer treatments". The writer, who is professor of oncology at the University of Tasmania, says:
Despite its name, the Congress -
from which Mr Stevenson was quoting extensively -
does not have the endorsement or involvement of any of the mainstream cancer bodies in this country, such as the Australian Cancer Society, or of any recognised international cancer organisations. Rather, its major sponsor is the supplier of "Green Magma", "Zell Oxygen" and other herbal nostrums.
... ... ...
For one used to attending cancer conferences at which the subject is dealt with scientifically and rationally, the list of topics is an eye-opener. It includes discussion of antiviral resonance frequencies, neural therapy and "endosymbiontic life" ... Some of the speakers appear to believe that cancer can be cured by eating shark's cartilage, practising homoeopathy and using crystals ... The danger is that cancer patients may misunderstand the status of the Congress, and be persuaded to forgo effective treatment, to waste money on useless, unproved and sometimes dangerous remedies and, at worst, to die of a curable disease.
The current American fad for shark cartilage, which seems to have replaced the ... (apricot pip) scam of the '70s and '80s, is based, firstly, on the notion that "sharks don't get cancer" ...
He goes on to cite scientific authority which, in fact, shows that they do. He continues:
The idea was popularised by an American 60 Minutes television feature in February 1993, that was in turn based on an alleged response in three of 15 patients who participated in a 16-week trial in Cuba. According to a review carried out by the United States National Cancer Institute, the data were "incomplete and unimpressive". They were not enough even to persuade the newly established Office of Alternative Medicine (set up by an Act of the US Congress) to take any action. The sensational claims are a cruel hoax; they cannot be justified by this standard of evidence and only furnish false hope. None the less, in their desperation, many patients are spending large sums purchasing shark cartilage and other unproved remedies, and the World Congress on Cancer is clearly designed to encourage such actions even more.
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