Quackery in head and neck cancer

Most human beings will do almost anything to prolong their existence or to relieve the suffering of disease. Others will do anything to exploit these desires by selling what they claim to be pain killing remedies or life prolongation nostrums. We present three cases of head and neck cancer patients; two used complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) prior to presenting to our service and the third declined conventional treatment to seek CAM instead. We discuss here the diagnosis, the time delay between CAM and commencement of conventional treatment, and the outcome in each case. Our aim is to define Quacks and to heighten public awareness of the potential harm they can cause.