News Biology 24 October 2018
Crowd-funders raise millions for useless cancer, stem cell treatments
Study finds plenty of money donated to evidence-free therapies. Samantha Page reports.
Despite a complete absence of evidence, people donate millions of dollars to crowd-funding campaigns for homeopathic and untested stem cell treatments.
Crowdfunding campaigns have raised millions of dollars toward medical treatments that are unsafe or unsupported, a new study finds.
More than 1000 crowdfunding campaigns, mostly through the site GoFundMe, have raised more than $US6.7 million to treat cancer, brain or spinal cord injury, and chronic Lyme disease, using therapies that are dangerous or ineffective, according to research appearing in the journal JAMA, led by Ford Vox of the Shepherd Centre in Atlanta, US.
“Assuming that the funds raised are spent to pay for these treatments, donors indirectly contributed millions of dollars to practitioners to deliver dubious, possibly unsafe care,†Vox and his team write.
https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/crowd-funders-raise-millions-for-useless-cancer-stem-cell-treatments
