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OTHER ALTERNATIVE TREATMENT CENTRES You may have heard of some alternative treatment centres in countries outside of Ireland. The most common centres are in Mexico, Germany, Hungary and Spain. These centres and the treatments they provide are not endorsed by any major international health organisation, for example the US Food and Drug Administration or The World Cancer Research Fund. The majority of treatments provided at these centres have no evidence to support the claims that they treat cancer and many of these centres encourage their patients to stop their conventional treatments such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Delaying or stopping the anti-cancer treatments recommended by your oncology team may have a negative impact on your overall health. These centres do not give conventional medical treatment and rely on vitamin infusions, coffee enemas, unregulated ‘medications’ (banned in several countries incuding Ireland), urine vaccines, light therapy, heat therapy, oxygen therapy, multiple food restrictions and other unproven ‘therapies’. Depending on your cancer stage and current symptoms, you may also put yourself at risk if you choose to fly to one of these treatment centres. These centres are extremely expensive to attend and can cost tens of thousands of euro depending on your length of stay. These centres often encourage patients to take out a mortgage or loan, or use crowd-funding to f inance the cost of attending these centres. This can cause unnecessary f inancial stress for you and your family. If you are considering attending an alternative treatment centre, please discuss it with your oncology team.
