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The Anticancer Fund (ACF) is a Belgian private not-for-profit foundation that provides evidence-based information for patients about cancers and therapies.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(February 2016) |
The Anticancer Fund (ACF) is a Belgian private not-for-profit foundation that provides evidence-based information for patients about cancers and therapies.
Officially established in 2013, the foundation has grown from Reliable Cancer Therapies (RCT), a non-profit organization established in 2009. RCT is still operational today, but the foundation has taken over many of its tasks as well as the goals. [1]
The vision of the ACF is to expand the amount of possible treatment options for cancer. The mission of the Anticancer Fund is to cure all people who suffer from cancer. This is done on two levels: information and research.
One of the main activities of the anticancer Fund is providing the public with scientifically accurate information regarding cancer and treatments. [2] This includes information on the different types of cancer, treatments (both conventional and non-conventional) and other information related to cancer and therapies. The Anticancer Fund holds a HON-certificate for the information that can be found on its website. [3]
Part of ACF's activities in the information section focus on exposing false and potentially lethal information. This fits in with the goal of providing evidence-based information concerning cancer and cancer treatments. An example of this is the drug GcMAF, which has been promoted as a miracle cure for several illnesses including cancer, but for which those results were never confirmed by independent study.
Dr Pan Pantziarka is the organisation's spokesman in the United Kingdom. [4]
In terms of research, the ACF develops promising treatment options for patients, which is done on an international scale. The ACF collaborates with other researchers across the European continent to advance the development of cures. The ACF also funds promising research projects financially. For example, the ACF is partaking in the CUSP9 trials, which focuses on the re-purposing of drugs for the treatment of cancer. It has formed a partnership called the Repurposing Drugs in Oncology project with the American GlobalCures to investigate the use of existing medicines with novel uses. It has identified Diclofenac, a common painkiller, as having significant anti-cancer properties. [5] It is also investigating the use of nitroglycerin. [6]
ACF’s funding comes from a private fund, as well donations from individuals who wish to support the cause of the Anticancer Fund.
Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability or evidence of effectiveness. Unlike modern medicine, which employs the scientific method to test plausible therapies by way of responsible and ethical clinical trials, producing repeatable evidence of either effect or of no effect, alternative therapies reside outside of medical science and do not originate from using the scientific method, but instead rely on testimonials, anecdotes, religion, tradition, superstition, belief in supernatural "energies", pseudoscience, errors in reasoning, propaganda, fraud, or other unscientific sources. Frequently used terms for relevant practices are New Age medicine, pseudo-medicine, unorthodox medicine, holistic medicine, fringe medicine, and unconventional medicine, with little distinction from quackery.
A randomized controlled trial is a form of scientific experiment used to control factors not under direct experimental control. Examples of RCTs are clinical trials that compare the effects of drugs, surgical techniques, medical devices, diagnostic procedures or other medical treatments.
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The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), a 501(c)(3) charitable organization founded in 1949, is the largest voluntary health organization dedicated to fighting blood cancer in the world. The LLS's mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's lymphoma and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.
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The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is a professional organization representing physicians of all oncology sub-specialties who care for people with cancer. Founded in 1964 by Fred Ansfield, Harry Bisel, Herman Freckman, Arnoldus Goudsmit, Robert Talley, William Wilson, and Jane C. Wright, it has nearly 45,000 members worldwide.
Genta Incorporated was a biopharmaceutical company started in La Jolla, California, which discovered and developed innovative drugs for the treatment of patients with cancer. Founded in 1989 by a highly skilled entrepreneur, the company focused on a novel technology known as antisense, which targets gene products that are associated with the onset and progression of serious diseases. At that time, only Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was conducting significant research with this technology. Antisense is a short span of oligonucleotides – modified DNA structures ranging from about 12-24 bases that selectively bind to specific RNA. The intent is to block expression of an aberrant protein that contributes to the disease of interest. Genta in-licensed three different antisense molecules that blocked Bcl-2, a fibroblast growth factor (FGF), and the gene c-myb, respectively.
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