{"entity":{"id":"idea-moon-unproven-clinic-registry","kind":"idea","name":"A public registry of unproven cancer clinics and reported outcomes","aka":[],"tldr":"A searchable public record of clinics selling unproven cancer treatments, with the claims they make, the prices, the evidence and the harms reported by patients and doctors.","summary":"Patients spend large sums at clinics offering unproven treatments (high-dose vitamin infusions, unregulated cell therapies, hyperthermia without evidence) and oncologists see the consequences but have nowhere to report them. The proposal is a registry maintained by an independent body, populated by clinician and patient reports and public advertising, with a standard evidence grading and links to regulatory actions, plus a route to notify regulators and platforms.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"Bottleneck evidence (Misinformation and unproven therapies): Johnson et al., Cancer misinformation and harmful information on Facebook and other social media (JNCI 2022)","url":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djab141"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":["hyperthermia"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":["regulatory-agencies"],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-misinformation"],"keyPapers":["paper-johnson-j-natl-cancer-inst"],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"A visible registry reduces spending on listed clinics, increases regulatory enforcement actions, and appears in the top search results for those clinics within a year.","rationale":"Sunlight works where enforcement is slow; consumer protection registries change behaviour in other markets.","test":"Launch with 200 clinics in two countries; measure search visibility, referrals to regulators, and patient-reported awareness in oncology clinics.","maturity":"speculative","actor":"regulator","cost":"small","horizonYears":2},"route":"/ideas/idea-moon-unproven-clinic-registry/","neighbours":{"technology":[{"id":"hyperthermia","kind":"technology","name":"Hyperthermia","route":"/technologies/hyperthermia/"}],"term":[{"id":"regulatory-agencies","kind":"term","name":"Regulators beyond the FDA (EMA/CHMP, MHRA, PMDA, NMPA, TGA)","route":"/terms/regulatory-agencies/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-misinformation","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Misinformation and unproven therapies","route":"/bottlenecks/b-misinformation/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-johnson-j-natl-cancer-inst","kind":"paper","name":"Cancer Misinformation and Harmful Information on Facebook and Other Social Media: A Brief Report","route":"/key-papers/paper-johnson-j-natl-cancer-inst/"}],"idea":[{"id":"idea-moon-ban-unproven-therapy-ads","kind":"idea","name":"Ban and enforce against paid advertising of unproven cancer treatments","route":"/ideas/idea-moon-ban-unproven-therapy-ads/"}]}}