By Speculating on anti-cancer study, media outlets are doing a disservice
TWO MEDICAL SCIENTISTS from East China's Zhejiang province recently wrote an essay on online medical journal eLife, saying cTACE treatment for liver cancer can be improved by combining it with bicarbonate, as well as cutting off blood supply to the tumor. They call their new method TILA-TACE. But some media outlets have speculated that Chinese scientists can cure cancer at very low costs. This is bad journalism, says Beijing News:
The work of the two Chinese scientists and their colleagues is a breakthrough in the treatment of liver cancer. TILA-TACE proved effective for all 40 patients in the clinical trial, while cTACE was effective for 18 of the 37 patients.
TILA-TACE not only strengthened medicines and cut off blood supply to the tumor with arterial cannula, but also introduced bicarbonate to better treat patients.
