Protecting yourself from cancer scams

Using an unproven treatment can be harmful in a few ways:

• It can delay your use of an approved and effective treatment. When you are treating cancer, time is precious. A delay in treatment can allow the cancer to grow and spread. This can make it harder to treat.
• Some of these products interfere with standard cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy or radiation. This can make your treatment less effective.
• In some cases, these treatments can be harmful. For example, black salves, touted as a miracle cancer cure, can burn off layers of your skin.

There are some easy ways to spot a cancer treatment scam. Here are a few:

• The drug or product claims to treat all types of cancer. This is a tip-off because all cancers are different and no one drug can treat them all.
• The product includes claims such as "miracle cure," "secret ingredient," "scientific breakthrough," or "ancient remedy."
• It is advertised using personal stories from people. In many cases, these are paid actors, but even if they are real, such stories do not prove a product works.
• The product includes a money-back guarantee.
• The ads for the product use lots of technical or medical jargon.
• The product is deemed safe because it is "natural." Not all natural products are safe. And even natural products that are generally safe, like vitamins, may not be safe during cancer treatment.

It is hard to know if a product or drug really works just from reading claims or studies. That is why it is important to use cancer treatments that have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). To get FDA approval, drugs must go through extensive testing to make sure they are effective and safe. Using a cancer treatment that has not been approved by the FDA is risky at best, and can even hurt you.

Some types of complementary and alternative medicine may help ease the side effects of cancer and its treatment. But none of these treatments have been proven to treat or cure cancer.

There is a difference between an unproven treatment and investigational drugs. Investigational drugs are medicines that are being studied to see if they work well to treat cancer. People with cancer may take investigational drugs as part of a clinical trial. This is a study to test how well the drug works, and to check its side effects and safety. Clinical trials are the last step before a drug can get approval from the FDA.

If you are curious about a cancer treatment you have heard about, your best bet is to ask your health care provider about it. This includes complementary or alternative treatments. Your provider can weigh the medical evidence and help you decide if it is an option for you. Your provider can also make sure it will not interfere with your cancer treatment.

Scams - cancer treatment; Fraud - cancer treatment

Federal Trade Commission Consumer Information website. Anatomy of a cancer treatment scam. consumer.ftc.gov/media/79879. Accessed October 31, 2022.

National Cancer Institute website. Ways to access experimental cancer drugs. www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/drugs/access-experimental. Updated January 13, 2022. Accessed October 31, 2022.

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health website. Complementary psychological and/or physical approaches for cancer symptoms and treatment side effects: what the science says. www.nccih.nih.gov/health/providers/digest/mind-and-body-approaches-for-cancer-symptoms-and-treatment-side-effects-science. Updated November 2021. Accessed October 31, 2022.

US Food & Drug Administration website. Products claiming to "cure" cancer are a cruel deception. www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/products-claiming-cure-cancer-are-cruel-deception. Accessed October 31, 2022.

Updated by: Todd Gersten, MD, Hematology/Oncology, Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute, Wellington, FL. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.