Influencers ‘putting cancer patients' lives at risk with fake cures'

Telegraph

02-06-2025

Cancer patients are dying after following fake cures peddled online, according to the world's top doctors.
AI and online influencers have persuaded cancer patients to reject conventional medicine in favour of intermittent fasting, essential oils, oxygen treatments and the Mediterranean diet, doctors said.
In an unprecedented intervention in Chicago at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, the world's largest cancer conference, they said they were 'losing the battle for communication'.
Dr Julie Gralow, ASCO chief medical officer, said the global body wanted to counter the ability of AI to 'hallucinate' and spit out false information, and to guide patients towards the facts.
In her own practice, she has faced repeated tragedies when patients had gone online to search for alternative medicines for cancer, ending up finding a clinic in Mexico promising vitamin C infusions, and caffeine colonics.
She said she tried to 'gently ease' patients into more evidence-based treatments, often after a scan showed their tumour was not shrinking, but in several cases it was too late by the time patients changed their mind.
'It's tragic, we mourn,' she said. 'You think about what could we have done differently? What should we have offered? But we can't force anybody to do anything.'
'Miracle cures' warning
England's most senior doctor last night said the same trends were sweeping the UK, warning of 'an alarmingly high level of misinformation' about cancer online.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said lives were at risk because of 'miracle cures' and 'fairy tales' on the internet.
He said social media could help to provide a supportive community for those diagnosed with cancer – but was instead fuelling 'an alarmingly high level of misinformation'.
'I would urge people to be sceptical of any 'miracle cures' you may see on social media around cancer, and use trusted, credible sources like the NHS website or your care team to verify anything you are unsure on – because these fairy tales aren't just misleading, they can be harmful,' he said.
Meanwhile, Richard Simcock, chief medical officer at charity Macmillan Cancer Support, warned of an 'exponential' increase in misinformation.
The oncologist said: 'I have recently seen two young women who have declined all proven medical treatments for cancer and are instead pursuing unproven and radical diets, promoted on social media.
'As a doctor, I want to be able to use the best available therapies to help people with cancer.
'A person is perfectly entitled to decline that therapy but when they do that on the basis of information which is frankly untrue or badly interpreted it makes me very sad.
'It's clear that we have work to do to build back trust in evidence-based medicine.'
One paper presented at the conference found that all of the videos analysed on TikTok about prostate cancer screening presented 'low or moderate quality content' about the topic.
Another study found that half the population surveyed 'did not trust' information from scientists about cancer.
Doctors Rohit and Rahul Gosain, who gave a presentation on social media to the conference, warned of a rise in social media-fuelled alternative medicines, with some patients delaying treatment until their cancer has metastasised.
The pair, who are both oncologists, create content on social media with the aim of bringing the latest scientific research to community doctors, under the handle The Oncology Brothers.
They said patients who adopted approaches with no evidence to support them returned to seek help only when cancer was incurable, by which time 'we have missed the boat'. Such patients were 'in a lot of distress', they added.
Texas University's Dr Fumiko Chino, co-author with Dr Brandon Godinich on the research about trust in doctors, warned that oncologists were 'losing the battle' against misinformation.
Dr Liz O'Riordan, retired breast surgeon and breast cancer survivor, said her own book The Cancer Roadmap; Real science to guide your treatment path, was inspired by a reel on Instagram which claimed that mushrooms cure cancer.
She said: 'There is a huge amount of cancer misinformation online – and that includes podcast clips as well as videos and Facebook posts.
'In my book I'm trying to educate the public by calling out the red flags that signal information is misleading and tackle some of the big myths – like sugar causes cancer, the keto diet can cure cancer, deodorants cause cancer etc.
'Every day I get messages from scared women who want to know if they need to stop eating dairy/soy/flaxseeds, do they need to stop wearing underwired bras/using deodorants, is it true that juicing can cure cancer?'
Speaking at ASCO, the British medic said many doctors were 'clueless' about the extent of misinformation on the internet, saying her own eyes were opened when she became a cancer patient.