Cancer is a spectre. It does more than kill organs– it kills people and their families. We need to find solid treatments for cancer. Cancer is a big business and business is good. What if we’ve had solid treatments for decades? That would mean no sweet marketing deals for the Pink Ribbon crowd. No protracted engagements with doctors and hospitals. If someone says “cancer” it’s like shouting “fire” in a crowded theatre– everyone crushes for a way out and they don’t care what it takes to get there.
Here are three examples of alternative treatments that have been derided and ridiculed. I have not used them (luckily, I have used no cancer treatment). I’m not saying you should use these if you’re stricken with cancer, but you should be aware of them:
Radio Therapy
Royal Raymond Rife was an American inventor and early exponent of high-magnification time-lapse cine-micrography. In the 1930s, he claimed that by using a specially designed optical microscope, he could observe a number of microbes which were too small to visualize with previously existing technology. Rife also reported that a “beam ray” device of his invention could weaken or destroy the pathogens by energetically exciting destructive resonances in their constituent chemicals. Rife’s claims could not be independently replicated, and were ultimately discredited by the medical profession in the 1950s. Rife blamed the scientific rejection of his claims on a conspiracy involving the American Medical Association, the Department of Public Health, and other elements of “organized medicine”, which had “brainwashed” potential supporters of his devices.
Interest in Rife’s claims was revived in some alternative medical circles by the 1987 book The Cancer Cure That Worked, which claimed that Rife had succeeded in curing cancer, but that his work was suppressed by a powerful conspiracy headed by the AMA. After this book’s publication, a variety of devices bearing Rife’s name were marketed as cures for diverse diseases such as cancer and AIDS. An analysis by Electronics Australia found that a typical “Rife device” consisted of a nine-volt battery, wiring, a switch, a timer and two short lengths of copper tubing, which delivered an “almost undetectable” current unlikely to penetrate the skin. Several marketers of other “Rife devices” have been convicted for health fraud, and in some cases cancer patients who used these devices as a replacement for medical therapy have died. Rife devices are currently classified as a subset of radionics devices, which are generally viewed as pseudomedicine by mainstream experts.
Although considered a fraud, more recently the Kanzius RF Therapy has emerged. This is an experimental cancer treatment that employs a combination of either gold or carbon nanoparticles and radio waves to heat and destroy cancer cells without damaging healthy cells.
The specific absorption rate for radio waves by living tissue in the proposed wavelengths and intensity levels is very low. Metals absorb this energy much more efficiently than tissue through dielectric heating; Richard Smalley has suggested that carbon nanotubes could be used to similar purpose. If nanoparticles were to be preferentially bound to cancer sites, cancer cells could be destroyed or induced into apoptosis while leaving healthy tissue relatively unharmed. This preferential targeting represents a major technical challenge. According to a presentation by Dr. Steven Curley, the types of cancer potentially treatable using Kanzius RF therapy include essentially all forms of cancer.
Kanzius built a prototype Kanzius RF device in his home, and formed Therm Med., LLC to test and market his inventions. The device was successfully tested at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in 2005. As of 2007-04-23, preliminary research using the device at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has shown early promise. If federal approval is granted, testing on human patients may follow. An article published in late 2010 illustrates that radiofrequency fields induce intracellular hyperthermia and necrosis in pancreatic tumors without injury to the human pancreatic tissue grafts tested.
The Hoxsey Method
The Hoxsey Therapy or Hoxsey Method is an alternative medical treatment promoted as a cure for cancer. The treatment consists of a caustic herbal paste for external cancers or an herbal mixture for “internal” cancers, combined with laxatives, douches, vitamin supplements, and dietary changes. Reviews by major medical bodies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, have found no evidence that the Hoxsey Therapy is an effective treatment for cancer. The sale or marketing of the Hoxsey Method was banned in the United States by the FDA on September 21, 1960 as a “worthless and discredited” remedy and a form of quackery.
Currently, the Hoxsey Method is primarily marketed by the Bio-Medical Center in Tijuana, Mexico. The Hoxsey Therapy is also marketed over the Internet; in June 2008, the FDA National Health Fraud Coordinator noted that “There is no scientific evidence that it has any value to treat cancer, yet consumers can go online right now and find all sorts of false claims that Hoxsey treatment is effective against the disease.
The Hoxsey Therapy, a mixture of herbs, was first marketed as a purported cure for cancer in the 1920s by Harry Hoxsey, a former coal miner and insurance salesman, and Norman Baker, a radio personality. Hoxsey himself traced the treatment to his great-grandfather, who observed a horse with a tumor on its leg cure itself by grazing upon wild plants growing in the meadow. John Hoxsey gathered these herbs and mixed them with old home remedies used for cancer. Among the claims made in his book, he purports his therapy aims to restore “physiological normalcy” to a disturbed metabolism throughout the body, with emphasis on purgation, to help carry away wastes from the tumors he believed his herbal mixtures caused to necrotize.
Hoxsey initially opened a clinic in Taylorville, Illinois to sell his treatment, one of 17 clinics that he would eventually open. Dogged in many states by legal trouble for practicing medicine without a license, Hoxsey frequently shut down his clinics and reopened them in new locations. In 1936, Hoxsey opened a clinic in Dallas, Texas which became one of the largest privately owned cancer centers in the world. At one point in the 1950s, Hoxsey’s gross annual income reached $1.5 million from the treatment of 8,000 patients. Hoxsey published several books advertising his methods and clinics, and received support from prominent right-wing and conservative personalities and fundamentalist Christians such as Gerald Winrod and H. L. Hunt.
The United States National Cancer Institute (NCI) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as the American Medical Association (AMA), began a series of efforts to restrict Hoxsey’s clinic operations, viewing them as providing false cures and defrauding cancer sufferers. Regarding this campaign, NCI director John Heller wrote in 1953:
Our efforts in cancer control are directed toward reduction of the intervals between onset and diagnosis of cancer, and between diagnosis and the application of effective treatment. People who fall victims to quacks are diverted from this narrow course for the best clinical management of cancer.
The American Medical Association condemned Hoxsey’s “caustic pastes” and tonics as fraudulent. In 1949, Hoxsey sued the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and its editors for libel and slander. Hoxsey won the case, but was awarded only $2; the judge concluded that since Hoxsey’s promotion of his treatment depended largely upon claims that the AMA was persecuting him, he had suffered little or no damage from the JAMA articles. A review of 400 patients treated by Hoxsey found no verifiable cures.
In 1950, Hoxsey submitted case histories of 77 patients to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), claiming that they were “fully documented with clinical records and pathological reports” and that they would demonstrate his treatment’s effectiveness. However, the NCI found that of these 77 reports, only 6 included actual tissue biopsies. Of the 2 biopsies from patients described by Hoxsey as having “internal cancer”, neither showed any evidence of actual malignancy. The NCI concluded that Hoxsey’s records did not contain sufficient information to evaluate his treatment. Hoxsey argued that it was the NCI’s responsibility to seek out the information necessary to verify his case reports, and attributed the failure to do so to a conspiracy on the part of the NCI and AMA.
In 1956, the FDA sent an investigator to Hoxsey’s clinic posing as a patient. The investigator was told by Hoxsey’s clinic that he had cancer (he did not), and that it would take a “long time” to cure him. The U.S. government banned the sale of the Hoxsey herbal treatment in 1960. Hoxsey was also forced to close all of his U.S. clinics. In 1963, Mildred Nelson, a nurse who had worked closely with Hoxsey, established the Bio Medical Clinic in Tijuana, Mexico with Hoxsey’s approval. Hoxsey himself chose this site in 1963, when his last operation in the US was shut down. Just before Nelson’s death in 1999, the clinic was taken over by her sister, Liz Jonas.
In 1967, Hoxsey developed prostate cancer, and his own treatment failed to cure it. Because he failed to respond to his eponymous therapy, Hoxsey underwent surgery and standard medical treatment. He died seven years later, in 1974.
Hoxsey herbal treatments include a topical paste of antimony, zinc and bloodroot, arsenic, sulfur, and talc for external treatments, and a liquid tonic of licorice, red clover, burdock root, Stillingia root, barberry, Cascara, prickly ash bark, buckthorn bark, and potassium iodide for internal consumption.
In addition to the herbs, the Hoxsey treatment now also includes antiseptic douches and washes, laxative tablets, and nutritional supplements. A mixture of procaine hydrochloride and vitamins, along with liver and cactus, is prescribed. During treatment, patients are asked to avoid consumption of tomatoes, vinegar, pork, alcohol, salt, sugar, and white flour products.
In 2005, the cost of initial evaluation and treatment with Hoxsey Therapy at the Bio-Medical Center in Tijuana, Mexico was reported to be between $3,900 and $5,100, though this price did not include the recommended purchase of an unspecified number of dietary supplements and 3 years of return visits.
Gerson Therapy
Max Gerson was a German physician who developed the Gerson Therapy, an alternative dietary therapy, which he claimed could cure cancer and most chronic, degenerative diseases. Gerson described his approach in the book A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 Cases. However, when Gerson’s claims were independently evaluated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), it was found that Gerson’s records lacked the basic information necessary to systematically evaluate his claims. The NCI concluded that Gerson’s data showed no benefit from his treatment. The therapy is considered scientifically unsupported and potentially hazardous.
Initially, Gerson used his therapy as a treatment for migraine headaches and tuberculosis. In 1928, he began to use it as a treatment for cancer, its best known application.
Gerson Therapy is based on the belief that toxic substances accumulate in the body, causing disease. In particular, Gerson’s supporters believe that chemical contaminants in food reduce its potassium content while elevating its sodium content. Additional sodium from food processing and cooking adds more sodium, increasing this purported imbalance. The belief holds that this imbalance changes cellular metabolism, causing cancer. Gerson Therapy seeks to reduce sodium and increase potassium in patients cells through a fruit and vegetable diet, coffee enemas and various injections, enzymes and nutritional supplements.
Gerson’s therapy required the patient to consume a vegetarian diet and to drink a 250-milliliter (8-ounce) glass of fresh organic juices every waking hour. Coffee and castor oil enemas were among several types of prescribed enemas, and some patients were given hydrogen peroxide orally and rectally. Rectal ozone was also applied. Dietary supplements include vitamin C and iodine. The diet prohibited the drinking of water and consumption of berries and nuts, as well as use of aluminium vessels or utensils.
Initially, patients were required to drink several glasses of raw calf liver extract daily. Following an outbreak of Campylobacter infection linked to the Gerson clinic’s extract, which sickened and killed several of the clinic’s patients, carrot juice was substituted.
Animal products and fats and oils were excluded, except for the raw calf liver extract and flax-seed oil, as were supposed sources of toxicity, including tobacco, salt, alcohol, fluorides, pesticides, food additives, and pharmaceuticals. Foods were to be fresh, organically grown and unprocessed. The therapy claimed to reverse any ill effects of exposure to environmental toxins over the course of 6 to 18 months, and Gerson believed it would be effective against most chronic diseases, including tuberculosis, most forms of advanced cancer, arthritis (both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis), and diabetes.
Gerson’s claims of success attracted some high-profile patients, as well as other alternative medicine practitioners. Gerson’s daughter, Charlotte Gerson, continued to promote the therapy, founding the “Gerson Institute” in 1977.
Gerson’s therapy has not been independently tested or subjected to randomized controlled trials, and thus is illegal to market in the United States. The Gerson Institute promotes the therapy by citing patient testimonials and other anecdotal evidence. In his 1958 book, Gerson cited the “Results of 50 Cases”; however, the U.S. National Cancer Institute reviewed these 50 cases and was unable to find any evidence that Gerson’s claims were accurate. Gerson Institute staff published a case series in the alternative medical literature; however, the series suffered from significant methodological flaws, and no independent entity has been able to reproduce the Gerson Institute’s claims.
Anecdotal evidence collected outside the Gerson Institute suggests that the Therapy is not effective against cancer. When a group of 13 patients sickened by elements of the Gerson Therapy were evaluated in hospitals in San Diego in the early 1980s, all 13 were found to still have active cancer. The Gerson Institute’s claimed “cure rates” have been questioned; an investigation by Quackwatch found that the Institute’s claims of cure were based not on actual documentation of survival, but on “a combination of the doctor’s estimate that the departing patient has a ‘reasonable chance of surviving’, plus feelings that the Institute staff have about the status of people who call in.” In 1994, a study published in the alternative medical literature described 18 patients treated for cancer with the Gerson Therapy. Their median survival from treatment was 9 months. Five years after receiving the Gerson treatment, 17 of the 18 patients had died of their cancer, while the one surviving patient had active non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The American Cancer Society reports that “[t]here is no reliable scientific evidence that Gerson therapy is effective in treating cancer, and the principles behind it are not widely accepted by the medical community. It is not approved for use in the United States.” In 1947, the National Cancer Institute reviewed 10 “cures” submitted by Gerson; however, all of the patients were receiving standard anticancer treatment simultaneously, making it impossible to determine what effect, if any, was due to Gerson’s therapy. A review of the Gerson Therapy by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center concluded: “If proponents of such therapies wish them to be evaluated scientifically and considered valid adjuvant treatments, they must provide extensive records (more than simple survival rates) and conduct controlled, prospective studies as evidence.” In 1947 and 1959, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) reviewed the cases of a total of 60 patients treated by Dr. Gerson. The NCI found that the available information did not prove the regimen had benefit.
Gerson therapy can lead to several significant health problems. Serious illness and death have occurred as a direct result of some portions of the treatment, including severe electrolyte imbalances. Continued use of enemas may weaken the colon’s normal function, causing or worsening constipation and colitis. Other complications have included dehydration, serious infections and severe bleeding.
The therapy may be especially hazardous to pregnant or breast-feeding women.
Coffee enemas have contributed to the deaths of at least three people in the United States. Coffee enemas “can cause colitis (inflammation of the bowel), fluid and electrolyte imbalances, and in some cases septicaemia.” The recommended diet may not be nutritionally adequate. The diet has been blamed for the deaths of patients who substituted it for standard medical care.
Relying on the above therapy alone while avoiding or delaying conventional medical care for cancer is purported to carry serious health consequences.
(the text above was snagged from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ ).
If you would like to hear more about the cancer alternatives and how people are being pushed away from effective solutions, watch Thrive.
