Hello,<\/p>
\r\n\r\nAn interesting and pretty fair article (In the most recent issue of \"Prevention Magazine\") documenting four stories of people taking so-called alternative cancer treatments and doing very well with them. The writer keeps referring to them as unproven. The only reason they are unproven is that the NCI has greatly delayed testing. One of the treatments, 714 X, has been around for over 25 years but the NCI just started testing in the last year or so. The only thing that is proven about orthodox treatments is that they have been an abysmal failure for cancer patients over the last 50 some years, but an enormous money maker for the drug companies. Cancer deaths have doubled since 1962.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nOne of the stories in the article is about Billy Best being cancer free for over 7 years. I interviewed his mother back in March\/April and have posted it to my nonprofit web site. You can read it here. <\/p>
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.cancerinform.org\/sueinterview1.html<\/p>
\r\nI advocate medical freedom of choice. If you want to take cancer causing radiation and chemotherapy drugs that have serious side-effects, then that is your choice. Personally, I would never touch the stuff. The point is that we do not have a choice in the US at the moment. The drug cartels' profits are being protected from the competition of natural or inexpensive treatments.\r\nThank you.
\r\nGavin Phillips.
\r\nExposing the Cancer Racket
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.cancerinform.org\/article.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nNothing Left to Lose. When conventional medicine failed them, these four cancer patients -- three of them terminal -- turned to alternative treatments that have never been\r\n scientifically proven to work. They're all \r\nstill alive.
\r\n\r\n by Sara Altshul
<\/b>\r\nhttp:\/\/www.prevention.com\/cda\/feature\/0,1204,3839,00.html><\/p>
\r\n\r\n Desperate Times, Desperate Measures\r\n David Yoffie's Deadly Cancer\r\n Dr. Gonzalez's Controversial Treatment\r\n Bill Mears Had a Year to Live\r\n The Jury's Still Out\r\n A Runaway Recovers\r\n An Unlikely Cancer Remedy\r\n A Dying Girl Triumphs\r\n Get More Information\r\n<\/p>
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Desperate Times, Desperate Measures <\/p>
\r\n\r\n When medical science had nothing left to \r\noffer (or, in 16-year-old Billy Best's case,\r\n when conventional therapy sickened him), \r\neach of these four people turned in\r\n desperation to alternatives that oncologists \r\nconsider, at best, unproven. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n David Yoffie and Bill Mears went to New York \r\nCity physician Nicholas Gonzalez, MD,\r\n whose controversial nutritional regimen \r\n(100+ supplements, regular coffee enemas)\r\n and rejection of conventional cancer \r\ntreatment have made him a lightning rod for\r\n criticism. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n Little Katie Hartley and Best, who were \r\nchildren when they developed cancer, took\r\n (among other things) a substance called \r\n714X, an injected or inhaled combination of\r\n camphor, nitrogen, and mineral salts. This \r\ntreatment was developed by a French\r\n scientist who was once arrested for \r\nnegligent homicide and practicing medicine without\r\n a license, though he was later cleared of \r\nthose charges. They also took an herbal tea\r\n that purports to fight cancer. All four made \r\ndramatic changes in their diets as well, with\r\n three of them eating only organic produce \r\nand forsaking all meat. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n But what exactly is keeping these people \r\nalive? Is it the unconventional remedies they\r\n turned to in desperation? Is it a healthy \r\ndiet? Is it some combination of the two? Or is it\r\n something else entirely? <\/p>
\r\n\r\n Their doctors are mystified. Though \r\ncontacted for this story, only one would comment,\r\n and then only anonymously. When asked if his \r\npatient, who had not been expected to\r\n live, was doing better than expected, the \r\nphysician replied with a terse \"To say the\r\n least.\"<\/p>
\r\n\r\n\r\nDavid Yoffie's Deadly Cancer <\/p>
\r\n\r\n \"My doctor told me I was going to die,\" says \r\nDavid Yoffie, 47, a real estate entrepreneur\r\n from St. Louis. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n In January 2001, Yoffie had routine surgery \r\nto treat his chronic acid reflux. At the\r\n beginning of the procedure, his doctor made \r\nan awful discovery. \"A biopsy of\r\n suspicious lesions on my liver showed that I \r\nhad advanced pancreatic cancer,\" he\r\n recalls. Pancreatic cancer is one of the \r\ndeadliest of all cancers; most of the 29,000\r\n people diagnosed with it annually in the US \r\nwill die within a year. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n Yoffie underwent four rounds of \r\nchemotherapy. The first two rounds shrank the tumor;\r\n the second two left it unscathed. Despite \r\nthe decrease in the tumor's size, he was told\r\n he had approximately a year to live. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n Yoffie became an instant pancreatic cancer \r\nexpert. Internet research turned up one\r\n name time and time again: Dr. Gonzalez. \"But \r\nwhen I asked my oncologist about Dr.\r\n Gonzalez and told him that he'd successfully \r\ntreated people with pancreatic cancer, he\r\n wasn't supportive,\" says Yoffie. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n Yoffie went on the challenging Gonzalez \r\nprogram in June 2001. \"It was quite an\r\n adjustment,\" he admits. He now eats a \r\nlargely organic vegetarian diet, takes some 120\r\n pills a day, and follows Dr. Gonzalez's \r\ndetox procedures, including the twice-daily\r\n coffee enemas. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n CAT scans and blood tests currently show no \r\nevidence of the pancreatic tumor, says\r\n Yoffie. \"I live a normal life, and I have \r\nenough energy to keep up with my kids. If I hadn't\r\n seen Dr. Gonzalez, I'd probably be dead by \r\nnow. Instead, I have every expectation of\r\n living a long, long time.\"<\/p>
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Dr. Gonzalez's Controversial Treatment\r\n\r\n In fact, Dr. Gonzalez says that hundreds of \r\nhis patients with pancreatic and other\r\n cancers have lived at least 5 years after \r\nreceiving \"terminal or very poor cancer\r\n diagnoses.\"<\/p>
\r\n\r\n The Gonzalez treatment is based on the work \r\nof two people: the turn-of-the century\r\n Scottish embryologist John Beard, MD, and a \r\ndentist from Texas named Donald Kelly\r\n who practiced some 30 years ago. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n In a nutshell, the theory holds that \r\npancreatic enzymes are the body's main defense\r\n against cancer and are useful as a cancer \r\ntreatment. Dr. Gonzalez, who trained in\r\n immunology, uses special diets, aggressive \r\nsupplementation with nutrients and\r\n enzymes, and detoxification methods, \r\nincluding coffee enemas, \"to enhance liver\r\n function and aid in the processing and \r\nexcretion of metabolic wastes.\" These, he\r\n believes, contribute to the body's ability \r\nto destroy tumors. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n Based on the kind of cancer they have, \r\npatients are put on 1 of 10 diets, ranging from\r\n strictly vegetarian to those containing \r\nplenty of red meat. They eat only organic foods\r\n (Dr. Gonzalez believes cancer patients \r\nshould limit exposure to pesticides and\r\n additives) and are cautioned to avoid \r\naluminum and nonstick cookware, microwave\r\n cooking, fried foods, processed foods, white \r\nsugar, artificial sweeteners, white bread,\r\n white rice, and other refined grain \r\nproducts. They use only olive, sesame, and flaxseed\r\n oils. Dr. Gonzalez urges his patients to get \r\na good juicer; he believes that freshly\r\n prepared organic juices are an easily \r\ndigestible, concentrated source of nutrients. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n His patients also down as many as 160 pills \r\na day, including vitamins, minerals, and\r\n trace elements, according to individual \r\nneeds and the cancer type. Dr. Gonzalez\r\n believes that these supplements boost \r\nmetabolic function, which enables the body to\r\n heal itself. His patients also \r\nself-administer detoxifying treatments, including twice-daily\r\n coffee enemas, periodic \"liver flushes,\" \r\noccasional carrot juice fasts, and various baths\r\n and soaks. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n Dr. Gonzalez lives his program, eating \r\norganically and taking supplements. He swears,\r\n as do his patients, that the coffee enemas \r\nmake him \"feel good.\" And he believes that\r\n his enviable energy and ability to work \r\n14-hour days are a direct result of following his\r\n own advice.\r\n<\/p>
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Bill Mears Had a Year to Live <\/p>
\r\n\r\n In 1984, when he was 53, Bill Mears, an \r\nengineer from Kennett Square, PA, was\r\n diagnosed with melanoma (skin cancer) inside \r\nthe sinus behind his left eye. After\r\n extensive surgery (\"They took my head \r\napart,\" he recalls), surgeons removed an\r\n olive-size tumor. Mears went on with his \r\nlife, believing himself cured. But just 3 years\r\n later, the cancer returned. Surgeons removed \r\nas much as they could, but offered little\r\n hope. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n In May 1988, a new tumor was found in his \r\nabdomen. Mears nixed the idea of\r\n chemotherapy, and surgery wasn't even \r\noffered as an option, because he wasn't\r\n expected to live very long. A physician he \r\nwas seeing for nutritional support\r\n recommended Dr. Gonzalez, who accepted Mears \r\nas a patient. By December 1988, the\r\n tumor had finally stopped growing. In 1993, \r\nthe tumor (which, according to pathology\r\n reports, seemed to be \"dying\") was removed. \r\nAccording to Mears, his surgeon at\r\n Memorial Sloan-Kettering, a top cancer \r\ncenter in New York City, admitted that\r\n \"whatever I [Mears] was doing was having a \r\nbeneficial effect.\" Now 70, Mears skis,\r\n splits wood, and travels the world with his \r\nwife. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The Jury's Still Out <\/p>
\r\n\r\n Like other practitioners who treat cancer \r\nwith alternative therapies, Dr. Gonzalez has\r\n evoked a range of reactions from the medical \r\nestablishment and the media. He has been\r\n sued for malpractice. A January 2000 story \r\nin the Washington Post questioned why\r\n federal funds were used to study a program \r\ndesigned by a doctor whom they alleged\r\n \"lacks traditional training in cancer \r\ntreatment and has been disciplined by a state medical\r\n board.\"<\/p>
\r\n\r\n Others, notably Jeffrey White, MD, director \r\nof the Office of Cancer Complementary and\r\n Alternative Medicine (OCCAM) at the National \r\nCancer Institute in Bethesda, MD, aren't so\r\n quick to dismiss him. Unlike some \r\nunconventional healers, Dr. Gonzalez has insisted that\r\n his methods be scientifically studied, and \r\nhe has refused to train other healers in his\r\n methods until his treatments are proven. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n \"What Dr. Gonzalez has done is what I hope \r\nmore alternative practitioners\r\n will attempt,\" says Dr. White. \"Namely, to \r\ngather hard data about the\r\n effectiveness of their therapies and have it \r\npublished in the scientific\r\n literature ... instead of simply marketing \r\nthemselves and their treatments directly to\r\n patients.\"<\/p>
\r\n\r\n Details of Dr. Gonzalez's treatment of 11 \r\npatients with pancreatic cancer were\r\n published in the journal Nutrition and \r\nCancer in 1999. Of the 11, nine survived at least\r\n 1 year after beginning the Gonzalez \r\ntreatment, five survived at least 2 years, four\r\n survived at least 3 years, and two lived \r\nbeyond 4 years. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n Those survival times got Dr. White's \r\nattention, since the median survival time for\r\n someone with pancreatic cancer is 5 months. \r\n\"His results are impressive and warrant\r\n the further investigation that's now \r\nongoing,\" says Dr. White. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n A Runaway Recovers <\/p>
\r\n\r\n The same day 16-year-old Billy Best was \r\ndiagnosed with Hodgkin's disease in the\r\n summer of 1994, his beloved aunt died of \r\nbreast cancer at the age of 49. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n \"The doctors told Billy the same thing \r\nthey'd told my sister-in-law: that chemotherapy\r\n would cure his cancer,\" says his mother, Sue \r\nBest, of Rockland, MA. Billy didn't believe\r\n them, and he told his doctors at the \r\nprestigious Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston\r\n that he didn't want the chemo. \"They said, \r\n'You have to have it, or you'll die,'\" Sue Best\r\n recalls. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n In a story that made headlines, Billy ran \r\naway in October after just five treatments.\r\n When he eventually came home, tests showed \r\nthat his cancer, which was almost gone\r\n before he ran away, had returned. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n This time, his family acquiesced to Billy's \r\ndesire to say no to chemo. They investigated\r\n alternative treatments and chose 714X, \r\ncreated by a maverick French scientist named\r\n Gaston Naessens, who fled his native country \r\nfor Canada after an uproar about\r\n another of his remedies. They also \r\ndiscovered an herbal tea called essiac, which\r\n contains burdock root, sheep sorrel, \r\nslippery elm bark, and turkey rhubarb. It is a widely\r\n promoted, though never proven, cancer \r\ntreatment. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n Billy overhauled his diet too. He ate only \r\norganic whole grains, vegetables, fruits,\r\n poultry, and fish. He avoided sugar, \r\nprocessed foods, and refined grains, and he drank\r\n 8 to 10 glasses of distilled or pure spring \r\nwater every day. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n The Bests believe that Billy's cancer is \r\ngone. An apparently healthy 24-year-old who\r\n works at a health food store in Boston, he's \r\nhad only one CAT scan to confirm the\r\n tumor's disappearance, and that was back in \r\n1995, 21\/2 months after starting the\r\n regimen. (He and his family believe that CAT \r\nscans can cause cancer.) <\/p>
\r\n\r\n Instead, they rely on blood tests devised by \r\nNaessens, who invented a special\r\n microscope, the somatoscope, to enable \r\npeople to view \"live blood.\" By viewing live\r\n blood, he claims that blood particles that \r\nno other scientist has ever identified become\r\n visible. Naessens calls these particles \r\n\"somatids.\" According to his theory, somatids\r\n have a life cycle similar to other \r\nbiological entities. When stress interrupts the\r\n somatidian life cycle, degenerative diseases \r\nsuch as cancer are enabled. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAn Unlikely Cancer Remedy <\/p>
\r\n\r\n \"You couldn't ask for anything more \r\nfascinating,\" says Ralph Moss, PhD, about 714X.\r\n Author of 11 books on cancer-related topics, \r\nDr. Moss is science advisor to the Richard\r\n and Hinda Rosenthal Center of Complementary \r\nand Alternative Medicine at Columbia\r\n University College of Physicians and \r\nSurgeons in New York City. He is also founder of\r\n \"Cancer Decisions,\" a newsletter and Web \r\nsite for cancer patients. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n Fascinating, maybe. But as a cure for \r\ncancer, 714X is far from proven, according to Dr.\r\n Moss. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n Naessens believes that 714X, which can be \r\ninjected into the lymphatic system or\r\n inhaled through a nebulizer, \"stimulates \r\ndeep cellular cleansing and repair.\" This is\r\n apparently the explanation for its use as a \r\ncancer treatment. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n After leaving France, Naessens opened a \r\nclinic in Rock Forest, Quebec. In 1989, he\r\n was arrested and charged with negligent \r\nhomicide and practicing medicine without a\r\n license in the death of a woman who had \r\nchosen 714X over chemotherapy. After a\r\n 3-week trial, Naessens was cleared of all \r\ncharges, but he was forbidden to reopen the\r\n clinic. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n Naessens and his company, CERBE Distribution \r\nof Rock Forest, Quebec, are readying\r\n documentation on 16 people whose cancers \r\nwere treated with 714X. They will soon\r\n present it as a \"best case series\" for the \r\nOCCAM. One of the documented patients is\r\n Katie Hartley. Read her story by clicking \r\nbelow. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n A Dying Girl Triumphs <\/p>
\r\n\r\n In April 1995, Julia Hartley noticed that \r\none of her 7-year-old daughter's eyes was\r\n protruding oddly from its socket. Her \r\npediatrician suspected an ear infection and\r\n prescribed antibiotics. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n \"But I just knew that something was really \r\nwrong,\" says Hartley, who has four other\r\n children. At Hartley's insistence, the \r\npediatrician sent Katie to Children's Hospital in\r\n Boston, where the doctors diagnosed what \r\nHartley describes as \"a mother's worst\r\n nightmare.\" Katie had an \"undifferentiated \r\nsarcoma,\" a cancer of unknown origin. The\r\n size of a tangerine, it was growing inside \r\nher head. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n Katie endured chemotherapy for only 9 of the \r\n13 weeks recommended, because the\r\n treatment caused severe and debilitating \r\nproblems for her; she was fed through a\r\n stomach tube. Following the chemo, her \r\ndoctors (a team of oncologists from Dana\r\n Farber Cancer Institute) gave her 6 weeks of \r\nradiation. The radiation stopped the\r\n aggressive tumor from growing, but it left \r\nKatie weighing just 40 lb, too weak to\r\n undergo further treatment. The tumor began \r\nto grow again. The doctors sent Katie\r\n home, telling her family that she had only a \r\ncouple of weeks to live. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n Frantic, Julia Hartley began calling cancer \r\ninstitutes and hospitals all over the world. But\r\n no one offered any hope. Then the Hartley \r\nfamily heard about the Best family. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n In January 1996, Julia Hartley told the \r\ndoctors that they'd like to put Katie on714X. \"They\r\n said, 'If she tries it, she'll never be \r\neligible for treatment in this hospital again,'\" recalls\r\n Hartley. \"I loved the doctors and couldn't \r\nshun them.\" Katie needed her weekly medical\r\n checkups. So the family kept mum about \r\nKatie's 714X injections in the morning and\r\n nebulizer treatments at night. Since Katie \r\nwas still unable to eat normally, her mother fed\r\n her a strictly organic vegetarian juice diet \r\nthrough her stomach tube. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n Katie's Happy Ending\r\n Eighteen months later, Julia Hartley \r\ndiscovered a tumor growing inside Katie's nose.\r\n Terrified, they rushed back to the hospital. \r\nMiraculously, it proved to be scar tissue, not\r\n cancer. In fact, tests revealed that the \r\noriginal tumor was gone. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n Katie's doctor was mystified, says Julia \r\nHartley. \"He told us, 'Keep on doing whatever\r\n you're doing.'\" Like the other physicians in \r\nthis story, Katie's doctor refused to be\r\n interviewed, citing doctor-patient \r\nconfidentiality. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n Today, Katie is a healthy 14-year-old who \r\njust began high school as \"Kathleen.\" \"She's\r\n given herself a fresh start with a new \r\nname,\" her mother says proudly.\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"Nothing Left to Lose. When conventional medicine failed them, these four cancer patients -- three of them terminal -- turned to alternative treatments that have never been\r\n scientifically proven to work. They're all \r\nstill alive.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2002\/07\/17947.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}