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The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Cancer warned that cancer sufferers are at risk from websites selling unproven cures, UK paper The Guardian reports.
Dr Ian Gibson, chairman of the APPG on Cancer, said: “I’m calling for these websites to be researched by the Department of Health and closed down instantly.
“We need to start a campaign to get the message out there that these sites are no good. If need be, we should be talking to the cancer institutes and charities in America to see what pressure they can bring to have the sites closed. But it’s a very difficult thing to do. People will always turn to sites like these when they are desperate, so we need to make sure they know the facts.”
In partcular, the online sale of DCA (dichloroacetate) is said to be a growing issue, since animal research published last year in the journal Cancer Cell showed promising results. The drug has not yet undergone human clinical trials, and experts warn that its unsupervised use is potentially dangerous.
Gibson said that the issue is “an increasing problem which started in the United States and is growing almost daily here.”
