Hello Brooklynade and welcome to Cancer Chat.

I'm really sorry to hear about your mother's diagnosis and that the treatment she's been having has had mixed results. This must be very tough and it's completely understandable that you would want to try anything you think might help treat or cure your mother's cancer but unfortunately there is no scientific or medical evidence to show that alternative therapies can cure cancer.

Our terms and conditions ask that you don’t promote or advocate alternative therapies on Cancer Chat because some of these therapies can be very dangerous, cause harmful side effects, interact with any conventional medical treatment or they simply don’t work. We would recommend your mother not to take anything that hasn’t been prescribed or approved by her doctor.

With regards the various therapies you have mentioned, it's claimed that Mistletoe may have various effects, including stimulating the immune system, improving the quality of life of people with cancer and reducing side effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. However, at the moment, there's no reliable scientific evidence that mistletoe is effective in treating cancer. 

Also, regarding cannabis, the current consensus is that there isn’t a large enough body of evidence to prove that cannabis (or any of its active compounds or derivatives) can reliably treat any form of cancer but the medical use of cannabis to treat cancer-related chronic pain is approved in the UK. You can read about the research that has been carried out in to cannabis and cannabinoids on our science blog.

You can also find out more about Dr Burzynski and antineoplaston treatment on our website. The therapy is based on the idea that peptides isolated from urine can be used to cure cancer. Patients enter into "clinical trials" at large cost to themselves. The only clinic reporting positive results for trials is Dr Burzynski's own clinic. No other researchers have been able to show that this type of treatment helps to treat cancer and no reputable scientific cancer organisations support any of these claims.

Only your mother can decide whether to use an alternative cancer therapy but it could harm her health if she stops her cancer treatment for an unproven treatment.

I hope all this information is useful but if you'd like to discuss any of this further with one of our cancer nurses, they're available on 0808 800 4040, Monday - Friday between 9a.m - 5p.m.

Kind regards,

Steph, Cancer Chat Moderator