Herbs do not cure cancer: Mola

By LULU MARK
PEOPLE must know that any herbal treatment does not cure cancer hence they should not waste money buying herbs but try to seek treatment early at the hospital, a professor says.
Head of reproductive health and obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Papua New Guinea’s School of Medicine and Health Science Prof Glen Mola said the Health Department needed to play a regulatory function in dealing with people or health professionals who were recommending and selling herbal treatment to patients.
He said, over the course of his career, he had witnessed thousands of people getting off hospital treatment and switching to herbs and eventually dying.
It is sometimes claimed by people on herbal treatment that after taking the herbs they felt better which Prof Mola said only lasted a short time and had a placebo effect.
He said patients and their families usually spent a lot of money on these expensive herbal treatments but they did not work.
According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary a placebo is a medicine or regime prescribed for the psychological (mental or emotional) benefit for the patient rather than for any physiological effect.
“Around 10,000 people are dying from treatable cancers in PNG each year,” he said.
“In PNG, the cancer treatment we have include surgery for cutting out the very early presentations of some cancers and some chemotherapy which can be effective for some cancers such as choriocarcinoma (cancer of the uterus).”
Prof Mola said it was important for PNG to have a comprehensive cancer treatment facility as most cancers only responded to comprehensive integrated treatment of multiple modalities.
“If we have nothing else to offer (because there is no radiotherapy or effective chemotherapy available), then there is nothing unethical about recommending herbal treatment to help make the patient feel better for a short period,” he said. “However, it is unethical to pretend that your herbal treatment is curative.”