'Miracle' cures shown to work

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'Miracle' cures shown to work

By nce, Health Editor

Published: 23 January 2006

Doctors have found statistical evidence that alternative treatments

such as special diets, herbal potions and faith healing can cure

apparently terminal illness, but they remain unsure about the

reasons.

A study of patients with incurable lung cancer who were given weeks

to live and received only low-dose radiotherapy to make their final

weeks more comfortable found a small number recovered completely.

Researchers who followed 2,337 patients whose disease was too

advanced for curative treatment found that 25 had survived five years

and 18 had achieved " an apparent cure " . They appeared to have been

cured by treatment that " would not normally be considered to have any

curative potential whatsoever " .

The researchers, led by MacManus, a consultant radiation

oncologist in Melbourne, say: " Our data indicate that a chance for

prolonged survival and possibly even cure exists for approximately 1

per cent of patients with non small cell lung cancer who receive

palliative radiotherapy.

Unorthodox cancer cures have included vitamin C, laetrile extracted

from apricot stones, and the Gerson diet of raw vegetables.

The discovery of a small group of patients who unexpectedly recovered

could yield new insights into the disease, the researchers say.

The findings are published in the online edition of Cancer, the

journal of the American Cancer Society.