HERE AT THE MOSS REPORTS

The great majority of published research is so deeply flawed that it should be considered essentially worthless. So says John Ioannidis, PhD, an epidemiologist at the University of Ioannina School of Medicine in Greece, in the August, 2005, issue of the journal PLoS (Public Library of Science) Medicine.

"For most study designs and settings, it is more likely for a research claim to be false than true," he states in the study's summary. "Moreover, for many current scientific fields, claimed research findings may often be simply accurate measures of the prevailing bias."

Ioannidis singles out several types of study that are particularly likely to lead to a worthless result, namely:

•   Studies with a small sample size ('underpowered' studies);
  
•   Studies with a small effect size, i.e., studies in which the drug or technique under investigation leads to improvement in only a small percentage of patients – and it should be remembered that FDA approval was granted to many of the newer, much vaunted 'targeted' anti cancer drugs such as Avastin, Erbitux and Iressa on the basis of response rates that were at best in the 10-20 percent range;
  
•   Studies whose outcomes are poorly or subjectively defined, such as studies which use so-called 'surrogate endpoints' such as tumor shrinkage to measure outcome, instead of using objective measures such as death – and the vast majority of clinical studies in the cancer field employ surrogate endpoints;
  
•   Studies in which financial conflict of interest is a factor, such as is very commonly the case in biomedical research;
  
•   Studies in which the researchers are prejudiced by being unduly wedded to a particular outcome - and this too is far commoner than one might think;
  
•   Studies of a topic that is currently 'hot' – the hotter the field, the more teams are working against one another and competing to be the first to publish, and this is likely to lead to selective reporting only of positive results.

Very often, Ioannidis points out, several of these factors are working in concert with one another. For example, researchers in a 'hot' field are more likely to be prejudiced in favor of one or other hypothesis, as well as to be competing fiercely with other teams to be the first to publish. As he sees it, though, the bottom line is unambiguous: most research findings are false for most research designs and in most fields.

It is clear that there is a lamentable lack of objectivity and merit in most of the published research on which clinical medicine depends. I have made it my life's work to study the medical literature critically and to question the basis for cancer treatments that have become universally adopted without ever having been shown to prolong life. I have written and published extensively on the subject of cancer and its treatment, including compiling a comprehensive series of individual reports on more than 200 different cancer diagnoses – The Moss Reports – each one of which examines both the standard treatment options that are likely to be offered for a particular cancer diagnosis, and the possible alternative and complementary approaches to that disease.

If you would like to order a Moss Report for yourself or someone you love, you can do so from our website, www.cancerdecisions.com, or by calling 1-800-980-1234 (814-238-3367 from outside the US).

I also offer phone consultations. A phone consultation can be enormously helpful in drawing up an effective treatment strategy and getting one's options clearly prioritized. To schedule an appointment, please call 1-800-980-1234 (814-238-3367 from outside the US).

We look forward to helping you.

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

As Dr. Ioannidis has rightly pointed out, one cannot simply rely with naïve faith on the worth of published medical and scientific research. In my work in this field, I have constantly tried to keep an open mind - but also to maintain a critical stance - on developing trends in cancer research and treatment. One way of both keeping up to date and maintaining an objective outlook is to seek the counsel of experts in the field, and to listen carefully to the varied and learned opinions of those who are on the front lines in the struggle against cancer and other diseases.

I and my colleagues at Cancer Communications, Inc., are therefore pleased and proud to announce the formation of a scientific advisory board. This is a group of outstanding clinicians, researchers and scientists who have generously agreed to share their wisdom and expertise with me in order to maintain the accuracy, topicality and scientific value of the information that reaches this newsletter and our many other publications.

I would like to introduce you to them. Bear in mind that their institutions are listed for informational purposes only. No endorsement of this newsletter or other products by these individuals or organizations is stated or implied. Also, I maintain final word on the content of my writings and thus in the end what I write is my responsibility alone, and not that of my advisors.

At this writing, members of the scientific advisory board include the following:

Keith Block, MD, is Medical Director, Block Center for Integrative Cancer Care, Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois College of Medicine and Editor-In-Chief of the PubMed-listed journal, Integrative Cancer Therapies. He is a graduate of the University of Miami School of Medicine, and medical director for the National Foundation for Alternative Medicine. Dr. Block is the author of 40+ scientific articles on cancer.

D. Barry Boyd, MD, is a board-certified medical oncologist at Greenwich Hospital, Greenwich, CT. He is a graduate of Cornell Medical School, and did his internship and residency in internal medicine at the New York Hospital and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and completed a fellowship in hematology-oncology at Cornell Medical Center. He has been an assistant professor of medicine at the Cornell-Weill Medical School and the New York-Presbyterian Hospital. He is presently an affiliate member of the Yale Cancer Center, New Haven, CT.

Kenneth A. Conklin, MD, PhD, is a clinical professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine of the University of California, Los Angeles, California (UCLA) and a member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA, where he practices integrative oncology. Dr. Conklin received his PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Hawaii in 1971 and his MD from UCLA in 1974. He began his practice of integrative oncology at UCLA in 1997. Dr. Conklin has published extensively. His most recent review articles pertain to the use of acupuncture for the cancer patient and the use of nutritional supplements during chemotherapy. Dr. Conklin serves as a reviewer for the journal Nutrition and Cancer and as a consultant to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM).

Jeanne A. Drisko, MD, is Associate Professor, Program in Integrative Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS. She has been instrumental in developing research projects in the area of CAM therapies and plays an active role in education of medical students, nursing students, residents, and practicing physicians. Dr. Drisko has served as the Program Director of the American College of Advancement in Medicine (ACAM). She is also principal investigator of a randomized controlled trial at the University of Kansas evaluating the safety and efficacy of adding antioxidants, including vitamin C, to chemotherapy in newly diagnosed ovarian cancer.

James A. Duke, PhD, Economic Botanist, retired from United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1995. "Jim" Duke is a Phi Beta Kappa PhD (botany, 1961) graduate of the University of North Carolina. Following military service, he undertook postdoctoral activities at Washington University and Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Missouri. He has written a definitive database on medicinal herbs, and is author of a dozen scholarly and popular books including The Green Pharmacy, and Peterson's Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs, as well as hundreds of articles. Jim Duke is widely considered the world's foremost authority on healing herbs.

Joel M. Evans, MD, is a board-certified OB/GYN with a special interest in women's cancers. He is Founder and Director of The Center for Women's Health, Darien, CT, is Assistant Clinical Professor, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York, NY. He is on the faculty of the CancerGuides Program of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine, Washington, DC.

Mitchell L. Gaynor, MD, founder and director of Gaynor Integrative Oncology, New York, NY, is a senior medical oncology consultant at the Strang Cancer Prevention Center, NY, as well as assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He is the author of The Healing Power of Sound and Healing Essence.

David J. Hess, PhD, is Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY. He is the author of a dozen books on the sociology of science, including Can Bacteria Cause Cancer? and Evaluating Alternative Cancer Therapies.

Michael Janson, MD, is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Boston University. A board-certified pathologist, he has practiced integrative medicine for 30 years. He is the past-president of both the American Preventive Medical Association (APMA) and the American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM). An experienced public speaker, he is the author of Dr. Janson's New Vitamin Revolution and practices medicine in Florida, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Dr. Janson is also editor of the Healthy Living Newsletter.

Douglas Kelly, MD, is a board-certified radiation oncologist at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), Tulsa, OK. He received his medical degree from McGill University, Montreal, and completed his residency in radiation oncology at the Ottawa Regional Cancer Center in Ottawa, Ontario. He has a particular interest in high dose rate (HDR) breast brachytherapy and MammoSite radiation therapy.

Giancarlo Pizza, MD, and Caterina de Vinci, MD, are both at the Immunodiagnosis and Immunotherapy Unit, 1st Division of Urology, S. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, a division of the University of Bologna. Dr. Pizza is President of the International Society of Transfer Factor. He has been a visiting scholar at the NIH and Mt. Sinai Hospital (N.Y.), among others, and has been Italian coordinator of several US National Cancer Institute clinical trials. He is the author of 69 PubMed-listed articles, 33 of them with Dr. de Vinci.

Azra Raza, MD, is Chairperson of the Division of Hematology Oncology at the UMass Memorial Medical Center, and professor of medicine at University of Massachusetts Medical School, both in Worcester, MA. Formerly at Rush Medical Center, Chicago, she is a world expert on the research and treatment of myelodysplasia and acute myeloid leukemia, on which she has written scores of peer-reviewed articles. She has also written extensively on breast and other kinds of cancer. A graduate of Dow Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan, she did a post-doctoral fellowship at the Roswell Park Memorial Institute, Buffalo, NY.

Susan Sencer, MD, is Medical Director of Hematology/Oncology, Children's Hospitals and Clinics, Minneapolis, MN. An expert on pediatric cancer, she is Director of Integrative Cancer Care at the hospital, where she guides the clinical, research, programming, education, etc. of the integrative medical hematology/oncology specialty area, and provides pediatric hematology/oncology medical services.

Leanna J. Standish, PhD, ND, Dipl. of Acup., is Senior Research Scientist, and former Director of the Bastyr University Research Institute (Seattle). At Bastyr, she was the AIDS Research Center Principal Investigator and Director of the University Health Clinic Hepatitis C Program. Dr. Standish trained at the Downstate Medical Center in New York and the University of Massachusetts. From 1980 to 1984, she co-directed Smith College's neuroscience program. Following this, she served for two years as a visiting scientist/senior fellow in the University of Washington's Department of Physiology and Biophysics. She has also served on the Advisory Council for NIH's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the NCI Cancer Advisory Panel for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Dr. Standish is a licensed naturopathic physician and acupuncturist. In her clinical practice, she specializes in complementary care for cancer, AIDS, hepatitis C and neurological diseases. She is the author of two dozen PubMed-listed scientific articles.

I am enormously honored to count these outstanding individuals as my colleagues and advisors and look forward to their critical input in the months and years ahead.

--Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.

References:

Ioannidis JPA, Why most published research findings are false. Plos Medicine 2005 (8):e124.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

The news and other items in this newsletter are intended for informational purposes only. Nothing in this newsletter is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice.

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