Good Point

In today's article on Skepticblog, Dr. Novella tackles the prickly issue of alternative cancer treatments (and does an admirable job, as is his wont). I highly recommend reading it.

Steve is discussing a Huffington Post article promoting a recent book by Hollie and Patrick Quinn, in which Hollie's decision to forgo conventional treatment for breast cancer is lauded (even though she did receive a lumpectomy—although mention of this is apparently absent from the news article). One sentence in Dr. Novella's article leapt out at me, though, as it's something that is seldom mentioned in discussions regarding alternative medicine:

Not only is it anecdotal, and further worthless as evidence of anything since Hollie did, in fact, undergo surgical treatment, but we must also consider that all the women who forgo proven therapy for alluring nonsense and die horribly are not around to write books about their experience.

Good point.