Cancer kills tens of thousands of Americans every day, but it also generates tens of billions of dollars in revenue for the medical and pharmaceutical industries. Why do these industries make such high profits in treating this disease, why should they support a cure? That’s the premise of a documentary titled Cancer: A Forbidden Cure, a cynical indictment of the ethics of the medical establishment.
The film begins with an initial examination of the disease, including how it develops and spreads in the human body, and the damage it causes in the process. The filmmakers’ main focus is on the three pillars of modern cancer treatment – surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Your take on each of these options is harsh. Chemotherapy alone is a toxic compound that has been shown to cause severe disease, a weakened immune system and cognitive dysfunction. Many now suspect that prolonged exposure to radiation therapy can trigger the same cancers as the ones they are used to treat. Are these really the best solutions available to us?
More than a hundred years ago, leaders in the field of oncology developed a treatment regimen that was largely nontoxic and heavily dependent on nutrition. The film claims that all of that changed when the wealthiest people in society began donating to medical universities in exchange for being on their boards. Almost overnight, according to the film’s interviewees, the economic prospects of cancer treatment began to outweigh humanitarian concerns. Pharmaceutical companies prosper, the cost of complementary therapeutic resources such as radium doubles, research dollars are spent on making medicines instead of finding cures, and critics of the medical profession are dismissed as “quacks” with promises that alternative treatments will never work Chance.
Filmmakers seem too eager to support those who claim to have discovered the next miracle alternative cure. The voices of those who have worked tirelessly and with great compassion in our lifetimes to defeat the scourge of cancer are barely heard when working within the confines of the same medical institution that the film criticizes. Still, the film’s premise that unbridled greed will stem the tide of real progress is valid and worth exploring.
Directed by: Massimo Mazzucco
