Editing Cancer (section)

=== Alternative medicine ===
[[Alternative cancer treatments|Complementary and alternative cancer treatments]] are a diverse group of therapies, practices and products that are not part of conventional medicine.<ref name="mnalt">{{cite journal |vauthors=Cassileth BR, Deng G |title=Complementary and alternative therapies for cancer |journal=The Oncologist |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=80–89 |year=2004 |pmid=14755017 |doi=10.1634/theoncologist.9-1-80|s2cid=6453919 |url=http://theoncologist.alphamedpress.org/content/9/1/80.full.pdf }}</ref> "Complementary medicine" refers to methods and substances used along with conventional medicine, while "alternative medicine" refers to compounds used instead of conventional medicine.<ref>[http://nccam.nih.gov/health/whatiscam/#2 What Is CAM?] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051208040402/http://nccam.nih.gov/health/whatiscam/ |date=8 December 2005 }} [[National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine]]. Retrieved 3 February 2008.</ref> Most complementary and alternative medicines for cancer have not been studied or tested using conventional techniques such as clinical trials. Some alternative treatments have been investigated and shown to be ineffective but still continue to be marketed and promoted. Cancer researcher Andrew J. Vickers stated, "The label 'unproven' is inappropriate for such therapies; it is time to assert that many alternative cancer therapies have been 'disproven'."<ref name="pmid15061600">{{cite journal |vauthors=Vickers A |title=Alternative cancer cures: "unproven" or "disproven"? |journal=CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians |volume=54 |issue=2 |pages=110–18 |year=2004 |pmid=15061600 |doi=10.3322/canjclin.54.2.110|citeseerx=10.1.1.521.2180 |s2cid=35124492 }}</ref>