(NaturalNews) A new study found that up to 75 percent of young or middle-aged terminal cancer patients receive aggressive - but useless - treatments in the last 30 days before death, causing needless added pain and misery for those whom the cancer industry has already failed to cure. One-third of these unfortunate patients end up dying at the hospital.

The findings were presented at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago, which was attended by 30,000 oncology professionals.

The study was based on an analysis of insurance data from 14 states, and focused on the treatment history of more than 28,000 terminally ill patients under the age of 65 who died between 2007 and 2014.

The researchers found that many patients underwent "emotionally and physically harmful" surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy in the last month of their lives.

"Much more often than not, these types of care at the end of life are not helpful, and they are emotionally and physically harmful for patients, and emotionally harmful to the patients' loved ones," said Andrew Epstein, an ASCO expert in palliative care.
 

Cancer industry ignoring its own guidelines

The research was conducted to determine whether new ASCO treatment guidelines established in 2012 were being followed.

From the ChicagoTribune:

"In 2012, ASCO issued a set of guidelines for physicians that recommended against using aggressive measures in patients with advanced cancer who are unlikely to benefit from such treatment. Instead, doctors should focus on easing the patient's pain and symptoms, the guidelines say."

Analysis of the data revealed that the new ASCO "Choosing Wisely" guidelines have had little effect on treatment practices - the cancer industry is still conducting business as usual.

From CureToday.com:

"The analysis, which included patients with five different types of metastatic cancer, also found that the provision of aggressive care at the end of life was not impacted by ASCO's Choosing Wisely recommendations, issued in 2012 to help balance costs against actual value, which strongly advised against cancer-directed therapy in patients with advanced solid tumors who are unlikely to benefit from it. The recommendation instead encouraged a focus on symptom-directed palliative care, but this analysis found no increase in hospice care use since 2012."

Even though it's obvious that cancer industry professionals have ignored the new guidelines, and despite the fact that the data does not reveal the exact reasons why such late-stage treatments are being prescribed, the industry is eager to shift at least some of the blame onto the patients themselves.

"[T]hese younger patients may want to continue to receive aggressive care for their cancers," said lead researcher Dr. Ronald Chen.

The Big Lie

What neither the cancer industry pros or the media happen to mention is that there might just be a financial incentive in ordering useless treatments right up until the end of a patient's life.