Submited on: 18 Sep 2010 09:59:54 AM GMT
Published on: 18 Sep 2010 10:08:28 AM GMT
 
Experimental Cancer Treatment
Posted by Dr. William J Maloney on 16 Feb 2014 12:29:30 AM GMT Reviewed by Interested Peers

  • What are the main claims of the paper and how important are they?

    The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate the various options in treating cancer.


  • Are these claims novel? If not, please specify papers that weaken the claims to the originality of this one.

    Yes


  • Are the claims properly placed in the context of the previous literature?

    Yes


  • Do the results support the claims? If not, what other evidence is required?

    Yes


  • If a protocol is provided, for example for a randomized controlled trial, are there any important deviations from it? If so, have the authors explained adequately why the deviations occurred?

    No


  • Is the methodology valid? Does the paper offer enough details of its methodology that its experiments or its analyses could be reproduced?

    Yes


  • Would any other experiments or additional information improve the paper? How much better would the paper be if this extra work was done, and how difficult would such work be to do, or to provide?

    No


  • Is this paper outstanding in its discipline? (For example, would you like to see this work presented in a seminar at your hospital or university? Do you feel these results need to be incorporated in your next general lecture on the subject?) If yes, what makes it outstanding? If not, why not?

    Yes- It would be a great lecture in a medical school.


  • Other Comments:

    The authors first present the various therapies which are considered to be traditional or conventional treatment.  They then present various experimental cancer treatments.  The authors state that the three methods of treating cancer which are considered to be proven (chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation) may sometimes shorten life in the patient.  This is a very informative article.

    Also, examples of alternative treatment are presented by the authors and include iscador, gerson, essiac, and electromagnetic therapies.  The authors state that the effectiveness of chemotherapy is often limited by its toxicity to other tissues in the body.  They also note the damage to normal tissue which radiation can cause.

  • Competing interests:
    None
  • Invited by the author to review this article? :
    No
  • Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
    No
  • References:

    No

  • Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:

    Clinical associate professor

  • How to cite:  Maloney W J.Experimental Cancer Treatment[Review of the article 'Experimental Cancer Treatment: An Emerging Approach ' by Prajapat R].WebmedCentral 2011;5(2):WMCRW003001
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1 Is the subject of the article within the scope of the subject category? Yes
2 Are the interpretations / conclusions sound and justified by the data? Partly
3 Is this a new and original contribution? Yes
4 Does this paper exemplify an awareness of other research on the topic? Yes
5 Are structure and length satisfactory? No
6 Can you suggest brief additions or amendments or an introductory statement that will increase the value of this paper for an international audience? Yes
7 Can you suggest any reductions in the paper, or deletions of parts? No
8 Is the quality of the diction satisfactory? Yes
9 Are the illustrations and tables necessary and acceptable? Yes
10 Are the references adequate and are they all necessary? Yes
11 Are the keywords and abstract or summary informative? Yes
  • Other Comments:

     

    In this article, the authors briefly discuss some limitations of conventional cancer therapy (surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy) and review ten alternative experimental cancer treatments that could be used to improve or even replace such conventional therapies.

     

    I believe that this article could be useful for readers who want to get some general ideas about cancer. I consider, however, that this article is incomplete and contain some statements that are incorrect or, at least, not accurate. For instance, the second paragraph of the Conclusion section is imprecise and contains some statements that are incorrect. It is incorrect to say that chemotherapy is only used to treat symptoms, as it is successfully used to treat many patients with specific types of advanced cancer (see: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12835671 ). The criteria for including a possible therapy in the experimental cancer treatments discussed by the authors are not clear. For instance, the authors include the phytochemical quercetin as one of the ten alternative experimental cancer treatments and do not include other phytochemicals (e.g. curcumin, epigallocatechingallate) that are currently ongoing clinical trials for the prevention and treatment of several cancer types (see: http://clinicaltrials.gov/ ). The authors should carefully revise the statements they make in their manuscript. They should also define the criteria they follow to include an experimental cancer treatment in their review.

     

    Several websites could be included in a possible revised version of the manuscript to help readers find robust information about cancer, cancer treatments, and/or alternative and complimentary therapies. I would highly recommend the NCI website as a reliable source of information about cancer.

     

    Basic cancer information:

    http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/understandingcancer/cancer
    http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/understandingcancer/cancer/UNDERCAN.PDF

     

    Types of treatment:
    http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/treatment/types-of-treatment

    Cancer information on Complementary and Alternative Medicine:
    http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam

     

     

  • Competing interests:
    No
  • Invited by the author to review this article? :
    No
  • Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
    Yes
  • References:
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=search&db=pubmed&term=Lopez-Lazaro%20M%5Bau%5D&dispmax=100
  • Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:

    Cancer Researcher

  • How to cite:  Lopez-Lazaro M .Review on "Experimental Cancer Treatment: An Emerging Approach "[Review of the article 'Experimental Cancer Treatment: An Emerging Approach ' by Prajapat R].WebmedCentral 2011;2(3):WMCRW00551
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  • Other Comments: The article give very significant knowledge about cancer and their treatment
  • Invited by the author to review this article? :
    Yes
  • Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
    Yes
  • References:
    None
  • Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:
    I AM ASSISTANT PROFESSOR HAVING 2 YEAR EXPERIENCE. I HAVE PUBLISHED 3 INTRNATIONAL PAPER
  • How to cite:  Bhandari M .EXPERIMENTAL CANCER TREATMENT : AN EMERGING APPROACH[Review of the article 'Experimental Cancer Treatment: An Emerging Approach ' by Prajapat R].WebmedCentral 2011;1(11):WMCRW00102
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  • Other Comments: the work is good enough to increase the knowledge.
  • Invited by the author to review this article? :
    No
  • Have you previously published on this or a similar topic?:
    Yes
  • References:
    None
  • Experience and credentials in the specific area of science:
    None
  • How to cite:  Prajapat R .work is good enough to increase the knowledge.[Review of the article 'Experimental Cancer Treatment: An Emerging Approach ' by Prajapat R].WebmedCentral 2011;1(10):WMCRW0073
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