Cancer claptrap

A fierce backlash from leading oncologists forced Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu — renowned for stepping out and hitting sixes during his cricket days — to go on the back foot. With cancer specialists punching holes into his claim that a strict dietary and lifestyle regimen enabled his wife to overcome the dreaded ‘emperor of all maladies’, Sidhu clarified that the diet plan was followed in consultation with doctors and had only served as a facilitator in the treatment.

True to form, the former MP went overboard last week when he told the media that Mrs Sidhu had ‘starved’ cancer cells simply by consuming haldi and neem and shunning dairy products as well as sugar. Though Sidhu’s wife is a doctor, he couldn’t resist the temptation of veering off the medically established path. It’s laudable that oncologists reacted quickly, urging the public to not delay treatment by banking on unproven remedies. Surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy continue to be the time-tested methods to cure cancer.

Sidhu alone, however, is not to blame for spreading misinformation. Social media is replete with ‘magic cures’ for cancer and other diseases, and there is no dearth of people who lap up all the myths and untruths. Patanjali Ayurved has repeatedly found itself in the crosshairs of the Supreme Court over misleading advertisements of Ayush products. The Union Government is also at fault as a draft to amend the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954, aimed at taking stringent action against those who release deceptive advertisements, has been on the back burner for the past four years. Cutting across party lines, parliamentarians should try to ensure that the proposed amendment is not consigned to oblivion. The medical community has a huge role to play in spreading awareness about evidence-based treatment. And the public can do its bit by raising doubts about remedies that seem too good to be true.