Disappointing to see a complex field summarised in this fashion. For some reason, ill-informed individuals love to adopt extreme views about cancer therapy and

Disappointing to see a complex field summarised in this fashion. For some reason, ill-informed individuals love to adopt extreme views about cancer therapy and air them in public. This is totally irresponsible, and I hope nobody making decisions about cancer therapy reads this. For example: 1. 'Weakening' of the immune system is the wrong idea. Preclinical and clinical studies have shown that there is synergy between the immune system and chemotherapy, and also between the microbiome and chemotherapy. For some cancers, combining modern immunotherapies with other treatments including chemotherapy is likely to be necessary to achieve the best outcomes. 2. Your analogy to medieval blood letting is totally ridiculous. The chemotherapy used today has been carefully studied in randomised controlled trials with many thousands of patients. These patients have been followed up for many years with meticulous documentation of early and late side effects, disease outcomes and patient reported quality of life measures. This information is invaluable to patients who have to make decisions about the pros and cons of cancer therapy. Is chemotherapy pleasant? Definitely not. Do some people experience terrible side effects that may be permanent and life threatening or even fatal? Yes. But it saves lives, and it comes with a host of supportive therapies designed to make the process as tolerable as it can be.