cancer-free society

cancer-free society

(1) A myth in the popular media regarding the alleged existence of cancer-free societies—e.g., the Bantu (Africa) and Hunza (Himalaya). The Hunza Valley in northern Pakistan was depicted as a cancer-free society, a belief debunked by a health team from Kyoto U; these people also have shorter lifespans due to their harsh living conditions.
(2) An organisation and website developed and maintained by Marian Jamison who, based on her own diagnosis of thyroid cancer, convinced herself that she managed to beat it without any conventional therapy. Her website contains some dangerously quaint assertions:
• Mammograms cause cancer in 75% of people exposed to them;
• Anti-malignin antibody in serum blood test detects breast cancer 19 months before any other type of exam, including mammography.