Web cancer cures 'could kill'

Cancer patients are putting themselves at serious risk by following advice on websites which promote bogus cures, the country's leading expert warned yesterday.

In many cases, they might sentence themselves to a slow, painful death by rejecting conventional treatment in favour of alternative therapies, said Prof Edward Ernst.

He studied 32 such 'treatment sites' which attract thousands of visitors daily and suggest such 'cures' as shark cartilage and apricot stones.

None of the methods advocated has ever been shown to halt the spread of the disease, said Prof Ernst.

A small number of sites actively discouraged cancer patients from using conventional treatments, he found, while 16 per cent did so indirectly through the advice they gave.

Three sites - heall.com, healthy.net and worldwidehealthcenter.net - gave information which was potentially harmful, added the Exeter University lecturer, who is Britain's only professor of complementary medicine.

He said: 'This was to us quite an eyeopener and pretty scary stuff.

'A significant proportion of these websites are actually a risk to cancer patients. We found they recommended 118 different complementary treatments which claim to be able to cure cancer - but none of them can be demonstrated to do so.'

Two prime examples were shark cartilage and 'laertrile', made from apricot stones. There was 'not a shred of evidence' that either helped to cure the disease, Prof Ernst said. Indeed, laertrile - which was heavily promoted in the US in the 1970s - has been found to poison some patients.

Prof Ernst warned: 'If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Don't believe ridiculous promises or claims.'

A spokesman for worldwidehealthcenter.net - which is based in Britain and Cyprus - insisted last night: 'At no stage do we offer advice on what patients should or should not do.'