Part 1: TikTok’s fake doctors spark health fears among public

In early 2025, N.D.T, 37, in Hanoi, discovered he had liver cancer and was advised to pursue medical treatment. With his lifespan measured in months, T.’s panicked family scoured the internet and joined groups searching for "healers and remedies".

After watching a TikTok video titled “Don’t Let It Be the Final Stage,” showcasing terminal cancer patients supposedly saved, they believed it was a great chance for T.

Huong, T’s wife, recalled: “We didn’t know if this was a doctor or a folk healer—just that they wore a doctor-like coat. We just needed to send his medical records, pay a deposit, and we’d get medicine. The treatment cost VND40 million per month and we were assured that the tumor would shrink and disappear. They showed us a bunch of thank-you messages from ‘cured’ people.”

Clinging to hope, the family bought a month’s treatment for T. Two weeks later, he was rushed to the ER with skyrocketing liver enzymes and ascites. A week later, he passed away, leaving everyone stunned.

Ngo Van Ty, a doctor at the Oncology Center of Hanoi Medical University Hospital, called it a tragic case. Though liver cancer is dangerous, sticking to proper medical treatment offers a solid chance of extending life.

Recently, Hanoi Oncology Hospital admitted a woman in critical condition with a tumor which had the size of a grapefruit. Initially, she found a breast tumor, but refused to go to hospital. After seeing TikTok ads about a tumor-shrinking product, she bought and used it. Three months later, the tumor grew to 20-25 cm and was ulcerated. Doctors diagnosed it as a form of breast cancer.

The patient said the product was endorsed by celebrities, so she tried it, but the tumor kept growing.

In another case, a 21-year-old Hanoi girl was hospitalized in a coma. Her relatives said she’d taken weight-loss pills from TikTok for over a month, one pill daily. After using the drug and starving herself, she lost 4-5 kg.

But doctors found the product contained sibutramine, a substance banned in Vietnam and globally for its severe risks to the heart and brain.

Real doctors outshined

Le Van Thanh, a Master’s degree holder and surgeon at the Abdominal Surgery Department of K Hospital (Hanoi), said fake “miracle healers” and self-proclaimed doctors on social media easily attract desperate patients, especially those with terminal illnesses like cancer. In their confusion, patients and families, if not careful, fall into these well-laid traps and lose money, and their health worsens or they risk death.

Thanh once saw an esophageal cancer patient trust a "doctor" claiming expertise in both Western and Chinese medicine, promising a cure. The patient died after four days of “treatment.” When Thanh contacted this “healer,” he affirmed that he used “energy healing” and had succeeded in many cases.

Ty added that articles, videos and images about health flood social media in huge numbers. Some even buy ads to spread their claims far and wide.

To provide scientific, reliable information to the public, Ty is running his own TikTok channel but often struggles to compete with ‘junk’ content. 

He believes there should be regulations to verify accounts of those posing as healthcare workers offering advice or treatments, to prevent dangerous consequences for the community.

Some analysts said they can see a growing trend of using medicinal herbs instead of drugs to treat cancer. The problem is that radiotherapy and chemotherapy cause serious side effects, and people believe that medicinal herbs don’t produce side effects while they can still cure cancer.

Meanwhile, many choose medicinal herbs as a last resort, when doctors consider their cases hopeless. As western medicine no longer works, they try medicinal herbs and a macrobiotic diet, clutching at straws. In these cases, the patients cannot be cured, though they spend a lot of money on the herbs.

Many doctors have recently raised their concerns on their personal social media pages, warning against people’s blind confidence in ‘fake doctors’ on TikTok. 

Their patients ignore doctors’ advice, arbitrarily leaving the hospital to go home and take herbal medicine. By the time they return to the hospital, the cancer has progressed, metastasized to multiple areas, and there is no longer any chance of treatment.

Phuong Thuy