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My fridge is now fairly full of alternative treatments for Harry’s pancreatic cancer.

Quite frankly, I think they are a waste of time and are only there because some con-artist has found a way to remove some hard-earned money from the desperate or the downright gullible.

My point is that if they were that good, then we’d all be using them.

But don’t believe me, read what is said in Patrick Swayze’s entry in Wikipedia.

When Barbara Walters asked him if he was using any holistic or alternative methods of treatment besides the chemotherapy, Swayze admitted to using some Chinese herbs, but not much. He then voiced his opposition to alternative therapy, as noted by ABC News journalist Joseph Brownstein:

Because of the grim prognosis, many patients turn to alternative therapies without scientific evidence behind them. Swayze did not.

“That’s one thing I’m not gonna do, is chase, is chase staying alive. I’m not, you know, you’ll spend so much time chasing staying alive you won’t live, you know? I wanna live. If anybody had that cure out there like so many people swear to me they do, you’d be two things: you’d be very rich, and you’d be very famous. Otherwise, shut up,” he told Barbara Walters in an interview that aired in January of this year.

Swayze’s feelings may be correct, according to a study released last month in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. That study — from Columbia University Medical Center — compared standard pancreatic cancer care, including the chemotherapy drug gemcitabine, with a popular alternative therapy known as the Gonzalez regimen. Researchers found that patients on the alternative regimen had a median survival time of a little over 4 months, while patients taking the standard of care regimen survived for a median of 14 months.

One of the troubles of chemotherapy is that it is generally very painful and you lose all your hair.  So if someone offers you a more palatable alternative, you go for it.

In Mary’s case, she wouldn’t have gone for the Tarceva. Even if it gave her a few more uncomfortable days of life.  Success is not just how many days you live past diagnosis, but the quality of that life as well.

But when illness gets serious, you bring out the big guns early!