19 FEBRUARY 2005, Page 19

Medical mumbo-jumbo

From Dr Daniel Kellett

Sir: Petronella Wyatt’s theorising on the causes of cancer (Singular life, 12 February) is yet another litany of pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo. This is an era where nonsense rhetoric and medicophobic hysteria is sending scores of cancer sufferers to their graves, all because of ‘something someone heard somewhere’ or (even worse) ‘read somewhere’. Eating sugar does not hasten the growth of tumours! Chocolate biscuits do not kill cancer patients! Why do people think so? Because of something they heard but didn’t understand.

Daniel Kellett

University College London, London WC1