Cervical Cancer: Googling for Facts Term Paper

The ACS seems to contain a relatively balanced and unbiased approach, not categorically endorsing any treatment, for every patient, with every type of cancer. Its list of references, provided by a link on the site, contains numerous outside scholarly journals, as well as individuals associated with the ACS. It also provides helpful guidelines for talking to a patient's doctor about therapies to support conventional treatments, underlining the fact that the Internet cannot be a sole source of a patient's information, and every patient's state of health is different. The site is one of the first that arises upon a Google search for cervical cancer. For cancer patients who wish to have more information, it provides links to reliable websites and brochures, one of which is in Spanish.

An Invalid Site: Dr. Day's nutritional supplement, metabolic diet, and prayer-based therapy

Of course, it would be easy to find an outrageously inaccurate site that advocated alternative medicine rather than conventional therapy by Googling such therapies by name -- but working with the assumption that the average person would Google the name of the illness first, or "cervical cancer alternative treatments" does this assure that all websites that pop up would be reliable? Not necessarily. One wildly inaccurate, unhelpful site that arises when simply Googling "cervical cancer alternative treatments" is the commercial site created by Dr. Lorraine Day. Without exactly specifying her treatment, Dr. Day states that she used metabolic and nutritional therapy combined with the power of prayer and faith to heal her cancer-ridden body. If the website surfer purchases her DVD, they too can learn how she did this (an immediate red flag, that the site is commercial, unlike the nonprofit ACS).

Dr.Day also claims that her techniques can eliminate all cancers, AIDS, and blindness. The sweeping nature of her claims standing as red flag number two, unlike the specific informative data provided by the ACS. Finally, she states that conventional therapies have destructive and disfiguring side effects that must be avoided. Sadly, in this one instance she is correct -- and given how easy it is to find her site, an individual struggling with cancer and the difficulties of chemotherapy and/or radiation side effects might be very tempted to believe her claims or buy her video.

Works Cited

Cervical Cancer: Complementary and Alternative Therapies" (2007). Cervical Cancer: a Detailed Guide. The American Cancer Society. Retrieved on 15 Aug 2007 at http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_4_4x_Complementary_and_Alternative_Methods_8.asp?rnav=cri

Day, Lorraine. (2007). "Dr. Lorraine Day's Personal, Official Website -- Her Amazing

Recovery from Cancer." Retrieved on 15 Aug 2007 at http://www.drday.com/

The Greek Cancer Cure." 2007). The American Cancer Society. Retrieved on 15 Aug 2007 at http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_5_3X_Greek_Cancer_Cure.asp?sitearea=ETO

Metabolic Therapy." (2007). The American Cancer Society. Retrieved on 15 Aug 2007 at http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_5_3X_Metabolic_Therapy.asp?sitearea=ETO".....