Contradicting information in the lay media

"Wow, that's ironic", I thought, as I was looking at MSNBC's Health page, and scanning an article entitled "Popping vitamins C and E doesn't stop cancer." There were advertisements on the side of the web page for "Cancer Fighter Vitamins" and "Advanced Vitamin Therapy for Cancer," which sounded to me like shame cancer therapies. It's as though I was looking at two totally separate web pages. (Read HemOncToday.com's coverage on vitamins E and C and the lack of protective effects on cancer.)

I know these are generated by some computer somewhere that doesn't realize the actual content of the article or the ads, but it's really no wonder that cancer patients and their families can become confused with all the information out there, or believe the hype that the herbal medicine or urban legend du jour promises. Such as having alkalotic blood pH can prevent or treat cancer (kind of hard to suppress the whole respiratory and renal systems to achieve that pH, though). Or that sugar causes cancer (I'd be dead long ago if that were true). Or that exposing a tumor to air will cause it to spread. Because now that I am really perusing the lay cancer news several times a week, I see that even day to day there can be contradicting stories about what does or does not cause or treat cancer.

Like all scientific exploration, oncology is full of "baby steps" kinds of discoveries, but I am not sure that the population as a whole understands that process. And, to be fair, some (most?) of these news stories really do put too much of a positive spin on novel findings. I wonder if that borders on offering false hope to patients.