I am posting the entire article below because we are still having difficulty with links-

When non-conventional therapies like antineoplaston therapy is discussed I often read comments like "well, if there was something to it (antineoplaston therapy) don't you think we would hear about it?"

The article below points to the current state of the study of cancer therapies in the U.S.  The vast majority of current clinical trials are about conventional chemotherapy or biological modifiers.  I will continue to rely on forums like this and mmasupport to get my anecdotal information.  David

"The authors found that of the 7,080 clinical trials for cancer currently ongoing, over 3,000 are focused on chemotherapy -- a treatment that already has over 50 years of research to its credit with relatively little practical return on investment. Of the remaining trials, over 2,000 were focused on more advanced biological treatments such as anti-angiogenesis drugs, which work to cut off the blood supply to tumors.

In all, only 123 of the trials deal with any type of alternative or complementary treatment. "These 123 represent only 1.7% of the total and included trials of various foods, herbs and modalities such as: soy, ginger, Valerian, Curcumin, acupuncture, Reiki, meditation, garlic, Green tea, and Tai Chi," the authors state. An optimist might find comfort in the fact that the number at least reached the triple digits, but closer analysis reveals an even less tolerable situation.

"The overwhelming majority of these trials examined questions that did not focus on whether these approaches alone improved survivability from cancer," the authors report. What this means is that the treatments were actually being evaluated not as treatments, but as adjunctive therapies to improve the rate and intensity of symptoms among those patients already undergoing conventional therapy.

It turns out that 24 of these 123 trials actually focused on a combination of natural compounds and the drug sodium phenylbutyrate, and are only classified as alternative-complementary because the treatment is not currently taught in medical school or widely used. Ninety-six others fell into the above category, evaluating the ability of natural treatments to ease the devastating side effects brought about by chemotherapy and other conventional treatments. For those who haven't done the math yet, you might want to sit down for this.

Of the 7,080 clinical trials for cancer currently underway in the U.S., only three (3) focus on natural alternative methods of treating the disease. That is less than 1/1000th the number of chemotherapy trials alone and translates to a measly 0.04% of total trials. Meanwhile, countries like Japan are surging into the future with cutting-edge treatments based on derivatives of medicinal mushrooms and other natural substances.

Alternative treatments are commonly described by purveyors of orthodox medicine as those which have not yet been evaluated and proven effective through vigorous scientific evaluation. Looking at the actual statistics, though, it may be more accurate to describe alternative treatments as those which orthodox medicine refuses to research. In light of this evidence the question seems to ask itself; are we really working toward a cure for cancer?"