Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Medicine debunked a now viral "cancer update" email that suggests traditional cancer therapies are ineffective. The email is falsely attributed to Johns Hopkins.
"The gist of this viral email is that cancer therapies of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy do not work against the disease and people should instead choose a variety of dietary strategies," Johns Hopkins said in a statement published in early March.
In the statement, Johns Hopkins experts debunk the email's claims line by line in a fact-check format, presenting "the hoax" followed by "the truth."
For example, one of the email's claims is that a strong immune system destroys cancer.
The truth: "When it comes to cancer and the immune system, it is not a matter of strong or weak as the functional report contends, but rather an issue of recognition," the statement said.
"The immune system simply does not recognize cancer," Elizabeth Jaffee, MD, co-director of cancer immunology at Johns Hopkins, added. "In its complexity, the cancer cell has learned to disguise itself to the immune system as a normal, healthy cell. Cells infected with viruses or bacteria send out danger signals setting the immune system in action. But cancer cells do not."
To read Johns Hopkins' full breakdown of the email, click here.