Vitamin C and Cancer: Medicine or Politics?

Richards, Evelleen

doi:10.1007/978-1-349-09606-0

Cited by 47 publications

(19 citation statements)

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“…Linus Pauling was perhaps the most prominent of all cancer dissidents, having considerable initial advantages compared to most other challengers, including a huge reputation (for example having won two Nobel prizes), a full career behind him and hence few career risks, and connections with the scientific establishment. Nevertheless, he had to contend with lack of funding, denial of publication and fierce attacks on his credibility as a scientist (Richards, 1991).…”

Section: Methods Of Domination and Marginalisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A positivist would say that the reason that megadoses of vitamin C has been rejected as a cancer therapy is simply that the evidence has not been anywhere strong enough. Richards (1991), who adopts a symmetrical analysis, argues that Pauling's work was marginalised through social and political means, not by disinterested, rational processes; for example, in the trials of vitamin C carried out by the Mayo Clinic, Pauling's clinical and evaluative framework was not used, thereby prejudicing the result. The choice of a social science approach affects not just the form of analysis but also the choice of what to study.…”

Section: Good Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…As indicated in Figure 3, those using an asymmetrical approach are unlikely to feel the need to explain either the ready acceptance of chemotherapy (quadrant IV) or the rejection of vitamin C (quadrant II). In contrast, Richards (1991) examines both the wide acceptance and use of cytotoxic drug 5-fluorouracil in treating cancer -despite it never having been proven effective through double-blind trials -as well as the rejection of vitamin C, using the same analytical tools, as in Figure 4.…”

Section: Good Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

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Dissent and heresy in medicine: models, methods, and strategies

Martin

2004

Social Science & Medicine

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Understanding the dynamics of dissent and heresy in medicine can be aided by use of suitable frameworks. The dynamics of the search for truth vary considerably depending on whether the search is competitive or cooperative and on whether truth is assumed to be unitary or plural. Insights about dissent and heresy in medicine can be gained by making comparisons to politics and religion. To explain adherence to either orthodoxy or a challenging view, partisans use a standard set of explanations; social scientists use these plus others, especially symmetrical analyses. There is a wide array of methods by which orthodoxy maintains its domination and marginalises challengers. Finally, challengers can adopt various strategies in order to gain a hearing.

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Section: Methods Of Domination and Marginalisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Good Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Good Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

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Dissent and heresy in medicine: models, methods, and strategies

Martin

2004

Social Science & Medicine

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“…These include hair loss, lowered white cell count, as well as mood, skin and gastrointestinal disorders (Richards 1991: 210, Dore 2001. In 1982, when four patients died of heart attacks while undergoing interferon treatment for cancer, it was admitted that tolerance to the drug was not as good as was previously thought.…”

Section: Hepatitis C and Interferon Combined Therapymentioning

confidence: 99%

Circulating beliefs, resilient metaphors and faith in biomedicine: hepatitis C patients and interferon combination therapy

Jenner

Scott

2008

Sociology Health & Illness

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In this paper, we argue that circulating metaphors and beliefs can create an environment in which particular biomedical treatments make cultural sense, even if they seem to be ineffective or are associated with unpleasant side effects. We develop this argument in relation to interferon combined therapy. An innovative methodology combining the collection and deconstructive analysis of visual and narrative texts produced by people with hepatitis C is used to demonstrate links between a predisposition towards Western biomedical practice, discomfort with uncertainty, a desire to reassert control, and adoption of conflict metaphors associated with the tropes of invasion and eradication.

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“…Second, the pharmaceutical industry-government complex is a relatively neglected topic. Sociological literature on contemporary medical knowledge focuses mainly on disputes between the &dquo;orthodox&dquo; medical profession and alternative medical/consumers groups, with the activities of medical scientists in government and industry fading into the background (McCrea and Markle 1984;Peterson and Markle 1979;Richards 1991). And third, the controversy in the United Kingdom and the United States over the hepatorenal toxicity of benoxaprofen, allegedly responsible for scores of serious ADRs, including many deaths, is politically important.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Distributing the Benefit of the Doubt: Scientists, Regulators, and Drug Safety

Abraham

1994

Science, Technology, & Human Values

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This article examines how scientists and regulators distribute the benefit of the doubt about drug safety under conditions of scientific uncertainty. The focus of the empirical research is the regulatory controversy over the hepatorenal toxicity of benoxaprofen in the United Kingdom and the United States. By scrutinizing the technical coherence of the arguments put forward by industrial and government scientists, it is concluded that these scientists are willing to award the commercial interests of the pharmaceutical industry an enormous benefit of the sccentific doubt, which is not consistent with the best interests of patients. Interpretative flexibility, the burden of proof falling on regulators and their trust in, and dependence on, industrial scientists facilitates that distribution of the benefit of the scientific doubt. However, regulatory authorities' need for viability and the rationality common to opposing scientific views suggest that it is possible, in principle, to alter this dominant trend. To achieve adequate patient protection, drug regulation in the United Kingdom and the United States requires extensive reform. Some preliminary policy changes are sketched.

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Vitamin C and Cancer: Medicine or Politics?

Cited by 47 publications

References 0 publications

Dissent and heresy in medicine: models, methods, and strategies

Dissent and heresy in medicine: models, methods, and strategies

Circulating beliefs, resilient metaphors and faith in biomedicine: hepatitis C patients and interferon combination therapy

Distributing the Benefit of the Doubt: Scientists, Regulators, and Drug Safety

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