Cancer treatment ads exaggerated, says Thai govt

[webfact]

Cancer treatment ads exaggerated, says govt
Pratch Rujivanarom
The Nation



MANY THAI PATIENTS FLYING TO CHINA FOR UNPROVEN, POSSIBLY DANGEROUS, THERAPY

BANGKOK: -- WHILE the government cannot prevent cancer patients from flying to China to get radioisotope implants, it will ask the hospitals to tone down their allegedly inflated advertising claims for the treatment's benefits.

An initial probe of the hospitals' representative offices in Thailand turned up no evidence of illegal medical practices as they are only information centres referring cancer patients for treatment in China.

"However, we found that the advertisements of these foreign hospitals do not comply with Thai law on advertising, as they showed before-and-after pictures of patients, and the ads were reportedly exaggerated," Dr Boonruang Triruangworawat, director-general of the Health Service Support Department, said yesterday during a Public Health Ministry press conference on the issue.

Besides warning about false advertising, the department will also ask the hospitals to submit lists of cancer patient undergoing "brachytherapy" and ask the Chinese government to check on the hospitals in that country offering such services.

As these hospitals operate abroad, Thai authorities can't regulate them.

The department will seek the hospitals' cooperation to ensure their ad campaigns comply with Thai law and ask for patient lists so that it can identify their customers.

"The department will also ask the Chinese Embassy in writing to ask the Chinese government to check if these hospitals have a valid licence and treat cancer according to medical standards," he said.

Deputy Public Health Minister Somsak Chunharas said the radiation leakage from the body of a patient who was implanted with iodine-125 (I-125) as a cancer treatment from China was not a serious problem. The radiation can be easily contained if the patient wears a safety suit and follows the instructions. "The real problem is that the patients do not know that after they're implanted with I-125, the radiation can reach outside their body, which can be harmful for medical staff and people nearby, especially children and pregnant women," he said.

"If you have I-125 or are not sure that you have undergone the operation, you can visit the National Cancer Institute and seven other cancer hospitals in Lop Buri, Udon Thani, Ubon Ratchathani, Lampang, Chon Buri, Surat Thani and Pathum Thani for a free test," he said.

The use of I-125 for other kinds of cancer than the early stage of prostate cancer is not approved as a scientifically effective treatment, he said.

According to the ministry, brachytherapy is also prescribed in Thailand for prostate-cancer patients in eight hospitals. The rough cost of treating cancer in Thailand as calculated by King Chulalongkorn Memo-rial Hospital is Bt100,000-Bt200,000, compared with a minimum of Bt100,000 at Fuda Cancer Hospital in China.

The website of the Modern Cancer Hospital Guangzhou's office in Thailand - www.moderncancer-thai.com - yesterday contained pictures of patients before and after the procedure and also articles about the efficiency of I-125 implants to cure cancer. There was also a video interview of a Thai colon-cancer patient carrying more than 20 I-125 seeds inside him.

Reportedly nearly 1,000 Thais have elected brachytherapy in China for their cancer.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Cancer-treatment-ads-exaggerated-says-govt-30258449.html


-- The Nation 2015-04-22

[noitom]

The Thais perceive the Chinese to be cutting in on their medical racket.

[Ricardo]

Would a package-holiday to Chernobyl not be just as effective ?

[maidee]

imagine, you are sitting next to one of them in the plane for many hours

days later, you start to get sick and you don't know why ...

why is this even legal ?

[ChrisY1]

"The real problem is that the patients do not know that after they're implanted with I-125, the radiation can reach outside their body, which can be harmful for medical staff and people nearby, especially children and pregnant women," he said.

A bold statement considering that this nuclear medical practice has been ongoing for quite a few years......and practised in hospitals here in Thailand.

This article appears to be an attempt to keep patients here in Thailand.

[skildpadden]

"The department will seek the hospitals' cooperation to ensure their ad campaigns comply with Thai law and ask for patient lists so that it can identify their customers."

Do they even have a right to that information - I thought there was a thing called patient confidentiality?

[Jonmarleesco]

'The radiation can be easily contained if the patient wears a safety suit and follows the instructions.' Seriously? We're in Thailand, where following instructions - especially common sense ones - is the exception, not the rule, and where safety - their own and everyone else's - is not a serious concern for the average Thai.

[Praematura]

Vice has a special report on the cure for cancer. Using viruses to cure leukemia worked in 90% plus of kids enrolled in program. Seems we've entered an age where cancer is cured.

Medical methodology is readily available for Thailand to use and implement on the cheap.

[lvr181]

Vice has a special report on the cure for cancer. Using viruses to cure leukemia worked in 90% plus of kids enrolled in program. Seems we've entered an age where cancer is cured.

Medical methodology is readily available for Thailand to use and implement on the cheap.

Really? Top class research, trials, published in respected Medical Journals and peer reviewed

Give us a weblink to this please.

[Praematura]

http://killingcancer.vice.com

It's an HBO show. If you watch the show they list the MDs, associated hospitals involved in the trials, etc.

[sugarcane24]

Would a package-holiday to Chernobyl not be just as effective ?

Or Fukoshima, as an alternative - and closer - option!