Historically, there has been a documented trend for some terminally ill cancer patients to turn to unorthodox treatment methods. At Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, data were collected on 15 patients who were self-referred for a clinical trial of laetrile. As a group, they appeared to be typical middle-class people: they lived in urban areas, were above average in education, had stable job histories, and had well-developed social support networks. Some of the data suggested, however, that this group of patients differed from typical cancer patients in several ways. A substantial proportion did not comply with the recommended treatment; expressed ambivalent, noncommittal, or negative feelings about conventional medical care; and had a history of emotional difficulties. Like most behaviors, the decision to pursue unorthodox treatment is influenced by many factors: intrapsychic, interpersonal, sociological, and cultural. AIthough the small size of the sample precluded drawing any conclusions about why...