ABU DHABI // Cancer patients are warned against taking herbal medications they find on the internet.
Doctors said that up to half of all their patients with the disease have tried some kind of herbal product before or during their treatment but, if used alongside conventional chemotherapy or radiotherapy, they can do more harm than good.
Dr Norbert Dreier, consultant oncologist at Burjeel Hospital, said: “Everyone affected by cancer is looking for something and they are ready to pay huge amounts of money. They order medicines from across the world,” said Dr Dreier. “Some patients come and say they took a medicine that made their cancer disappear. I try to explain to them that as an oncologist, I need to rely on studies.
“If I give a new drug, I need to see if it makes difference. There are no studies on these herbal medicines,” said Dr Dreier.
Dr Dreier said a man tried to sell him herbal medicines that he said would cure pancreatic cancer.
When Dr Dreier investigated, he found that the medicine was a combination of old chemotherapy drugs and some Indian herbs.
“This drug has been there for 20 years and they are trying to push it in a country every five years and now in the UAE,” said Dr Dreier.
He said taking a high dosage of some of these herbs can damage one’s organs.
Dr Ashok Uttamchandani, oncology physician at Mafraq Hospital, agreed use of herbal medicines for cancer was common.
“Some patients try herbal medication while they are on chemotherapy. I would advise them not to do that as we do not know how they interact. Sometimes they come in life-threatening situations,” he said.
The doctors said patients often travel overseas to buy herbal medicines.
“Treatment can often be delayed by months as they have false faith that these medicines will help,” he said. “They come to us in advanced stages saying they were taking herbal medication.”
Often, these medicines can have deleterious effects, such as causing a tumour to grow or making the cancer spread to lymph nodes.
Dr Aladdin Maarraoui, chief of oncology and haematology at Mafraq Hospital, said: “Some herbal medicines may have little benefit, others may have none and some might be harmful.
“The patient is not a doctor and none of the herbals will cover or be a substitute of surgery or radiotherapy or chemotherapy,” he said.
Lama Riachi, 37, a, co-founder of Blessed (together), a Dubai-based support group for patients suffering from cancer, believed the high cost of medicine is forcing patients to look for alternatives.
“I see people go for herbal medicines because they’re without hope,” she said. “They have no hope of being able to afford the medication and they start trying whatever they can. They get these medicines through word of mouth.
“People are undereducated are about their options and they go with whatever they’re told.”
arizvi2@thenational.ae
