Dr. Burzynski's and the Canadian site visit
Scott Ballantyne
B. Harris/Virginia George ) writes:
>In <4fvqec$3...@spieg.interealm.com> du...@spieg.interealm.com (Stephen
Dunn) writes:
>>
>>We also have Burzynski's published clinical results,
>Citation?
Allow me:
Burzynski SR Stolzmann Z Szopa B Stolzmann E Kaltenberg OP
ANTINEOPLASTON A IN CANCER THERAPY (I)
In: Physiol Chem Phys (1977) 9(6):485-500
Antineoplaston A (ANA), a peptide from human urine, was given to 21
patients with far-advanced tumors who were followed for 1-9 mo. Most
were resistant to chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. ANA caused
complete remissions (CR) in 2/2 patients with Grade III transitional
cell carcinomas of the bladder, 1/6 with advanced breast cancer, and
a child with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. ANA caused partial
remissions (PR) in 2/3 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia
(CLL), 1/2 with rectal adenocarcinoma, and a 20-yr-old man with lung
metastases from synovial sarcoma. Six patients (1 each with breast
cancer, rectal adenocarcinoma, undifferentiated ovarian tumor,
squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue or cervix, and Ewing's sarcoma)
showed stabilization of disease (SD). The patients with tongue cancer
and Ewing's sarcoma relapsed within about 2 mo. All of the PR
patients and 4/6 SD patients were continuing to improve at the time
of report. It was hoped that the SD patients would reach a PR and the
PR patients a CR. Five patients died during treatment, but not of
cancer or toxicity; 2/5 showed significant tumor regression at
autopsy. ANA caused marked central necrosis of solid tumors. Most
patients showed a transient increase of WBC and platelet counts after
about 1 mo of treatment. Some had a febrile syndrome, apparently
caused by tumor cell breakdown. The recommended treatment is
continuous iv infusion (1.2 units/m**2/day, gradually increased to 33
units/m**2 or the development of fever) for about 1 mo, followed by
lower doses (0.6 units, 2x/wk) im or rectally. ANA caused no
significant toxicity at the doses used (0.6-33 units/m**2/day, iv,
im, rectally, intrapleurally, intravesically, or topically). (14
Refs)
If one were to take Burzynski's word for it, this sounds pretty
good. It's not necessary to do that because the interesting thing
about this citation is that there was a site visit done in 1982 by a
team of Canadian physicians at the request of the Ministry of Health
in Ontario who made a point of following up on the cases of complete
remission reported by Burzynski. The physicians were Blackstein and
Bergsagel. Blackstein is a M.D. and a PhD and at the time of the visit
was the head of the Division of Oncology at Mount Sinai Hospital in
Toronto, as well as an associate professor at the University of
Toronto. Daniel Bergsagel was a full professor of medicine at UofT and
the Chief of Medicine at Princess Margaret Hospital. Several other
physicians were consulted in the course of the development of this
report. Here's the applicable portion:
"We made a point of asking Dr. Burzynski about the current status of
the 4 patients who had achieved a complete remission. One was a
14-year-old boy with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who had been
treated with a large dose of Methotrexate, and continued on
Prednisone while Antineoplaston injections were given. Apparently
he did improve with this therapy, but the remission lasted for only
a few weeks, and he died 8 weeks later with recurrence of the
leukemia. The clinical improvement likely resulted from the
Methotrexate and Prednisone therapy given shortly before the
Antineoplaston was started.
A patient with breast cancer was apparently free of disease when
Antineoplaston was started. This patient shortly relapsed and has
since died with metastatic breast cancer.
A patient with multiple bladder tumors was treated with
Antineoplaston. The tumors have since recurred, and he has died
of his disease.
The only surviving patient had a solitary bladder tumor. This type
of bladder tumor is usually treated with cautery at the time of
cystoscopy. Although Dr. Burzynski does not state this in his
report, I suspect that this b ladder tumor disappeared as a result
of the biopsy when he was cystoscoped. This patient is still
alive."
This pretty much speaks for itself. Meanwhile, there is more in this
report. The MDs asked Burzynski to present best examples chosen by
him. Here are some comments on the cases Burzynski present3ed:
"The commonest problem we encountered was the fact that patients
had received effective treatment before they were referred to
Houston, and were responding slowly to this
treatment. Dr. Burzynski started Antineoplaston, and falsely
credited the Antineoplaston with the therapeutic response that was
observed. We will quote two examples of this type of the problem:
1. A woman with Stage III carcinoma of the cervix had received
full doses of radiation therapy to the pelvis prior to
consulting Dr. Burzynski. When he saw her there was still
some necrotic tumor in the cervix. A Pap. smear of the
cervis showed extensive radiation changes in the epithelial
cells, and possibly some carcinomatous cells, but the
Cytologist could not be sure that there was viable tumor in
the specimen he examined. The patient was started on
Antineoplaston, the necrotic tumor gradually disappeared,
and the epithellium of the vagina and cervix have healed,
and the patient now feels very well. All of this
improvement should be attributed to the prior radiation
therapy rather than to the Antineoplaston therapy.
2. A patient with carcinoma of the prostate was found to have
bone metastases on a bone scan. An orchiectomy was done two
months before the patient was referred to Houston. The
patient was started on Antineoplaston, and repeat bone
scans at a later date showed improvement. A slow response
such as this is characteristic of the orchiectomy response
in patients with carcinoma of the prostate.
We were surprised that Dr. Burzynski would show us such
questionable cases. We were left with the impression that either he
knows very little about cancer and the response of different tumors
to radiation and hormonal measures, or else he thinks that we are
very stupid, and he has tried to hoodwink us.
As we look back over the cases were were shown, we are left with
the impression that the only patients who are still alive either
had slowly growing tumors, or had received effective treatment
before being referred to Houston."
The conclusions of the Canadian site visit time were summarized as:
"After reviewing 20 case reports, selected by Dr. Burzynski as his
best examples of clear cut responses to Antineoplastons we were
unable to identify a single case in which therapeutic benefit could
be attributed to Antineoplaston."
Furthermore:
"We believe that it is unethical to administer unproven agents such
as Antineoplastons to patients without satisfying the requirements
of the FDA and an ethics committee, that the minimum standards for
human experimentation are being met. We also believe that it is
immoral to charge patients for this unproven, experimental
treatment."
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DANNY COX
>Furthermore:
>
> "We believe that it is unethical to administer unproven agents such
> as Antineoplastons to patients without satisfying the requirements
> of the FDA and an ethics committee, that the minimum standards for
> human experimentation are being met. We also believe that it is
> immoral to charge patients for this unproven, experimental
> treatment."
>
>
>sdb
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>
amounts of money for treatments with low success rates. I have known
many co-workers, friends, and relatives who have trusted the medical
establishment and are now dead. I can think of 2 or 3 who may have been
cured, so I am am not saying that conventional treatment is a total
failure. They do pretty well with simple skin cancers.
Scott Ballantyne
> >
> Isn't the orthodox medical community charging patients tremendous
> amounts of money for treatments with low success rates. I have known
> many co-workers, friends, and relatives who have trusted the medical
> establishment and are now dead. I can think of 2 or 3 who may have been
> cured, so I am am not saying that conventional treatment is a total
> failure. They do pretty well with simple skin cancers.
>
You're missing the point.
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