Posted by guest on 12/22/2004, 1:35 pm Shark cartilage cancer 'cure' shows danger of pseudoscience The rising popularity of shark cartilage extract as an anti-cancer treatment In the paper, titled "Shark Cartilage, Cancer and the Growing Threat of In the paper, Ostrander and a team of researchers from the Registry of Tumors "People read on the Internet or hear on television that taking crude shark Ostrander traces the popularity of crude shark cartilage as a cancer treatment
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Bio.com
December 21, 2004
Source: Johns Hopkins University
is a triumph of marketing and pseudoscience over reason, with a tragic fallout
for both sharks and humans, according to a Johns Hopkins biologist writing in
the Dec. 1 issue of Cancer Research. "Since shark cartilage has been promoted
as a cancer cure, not only has there has been a measurable decline in shark
populations, but cancer patients also have been diverted from proven,
effective treatments," said Gary K. Ostrander, a research professor in the
departments of Biology and Comparative Medicine at The Johns Hopkins
University.
Pseudoscience," Ostrander writes, "Crude shark cartilage is marketed as a
cancer cure on the premise that sharks don't get cancer. That's not true, and
the fact that people believe it is an illustration of just how harmful the
public's irrationality can be." In fact, Ostrander's paper details more than
40 examples of tumors in sharks and related species, dating back to the
mid-1800s.
in Lower Animals not only dissect what they call the "fallacious arguments"
that have successfully convinced desperate cancer patients to purchase and
ingest crude shark cartilage extract, but they also sound a "wake-up call" for
society to become more scientifically literate and, thus, less vulnerable to
skillfully mass-marketed illogical claims.
cartilage extract can cure them of cancer, and they believe it without
demanding to see the science behind the claims," Ostrander said. "This shows
how the electronic media has increased the potential harm of pseudoscience,
turning what would otherwise be quaint cultural curiosities into potential
serious societal and ecological problems. The only way to combat this is to
ensure that government leaders and media professionals receive adequate
scientific training based on reason, and that they also develop critical
thinking skills."
and preventive measure to I. William Lane's 1992 book titled "Sharks Don't Get
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