Letters to the Editor

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients,  August, 2001  

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Cancer -- Its Final Defeat?

Editor:

Past and present patients of Stanislaw Burzynski, MD, PhD share a mixture of cynicism, irritation, and amusement when they hear the frequent funding appeals to "find a cure for cancer in our time." We already have a cure, at least for most cancers. It's available at Dr. Burzynski's Houston clinic.

Dr. Burzynski does not brashly claim to have discovered the cure science has been seeking for generations. Characteristically, he gently admits to being able to "help people with cancer; many, but not all." The fact remains that many people are alive today who, without his therapy, would otherwise be dead. Many of his successful cases involved patients who had been considered terminal by conventional medicine.

He is particularly successful in cases of brain tumors, which kill many children, and of prostate cancer, the second most common cancer-killer of adult men. It has been guesstimated that, had his therapy been made readily available, under insurance protection, since its initial development, it could have prevented three-quarters of a million prostate cancer deaths in this country alone.

One wonders if cancer has not been our deadliest medical scourge since people first trod the earth. Dr. Burzynski's therapy, (which he calls "antineoplaston," meaning "against cancer"), appears the giant breakthrough that we have awaited so long. Its discovery was exciting, and reflective of Dr. Burzynski's brilliance, and both medical and moral tenacity.

Stanislaw Burzynski tacked "MD" after his name in 1967 when, at age 24, he graduated at the top of his 250-student class from the Medical Academy in Lublin, Poland. A year later he added a PhD in Biochemistry, one of Poland's youngest candidates ever to earn both doctoral degrees. Perhaps unknown even to himself at that time, his quest for cancer's defeat had already begun.

It was between his two doctorates that the young Dr. Burzynski identified peptides which occur naturally in the human body. Their deficiency in cancer patients aroused his suspicion of an association between the peptides, and cancer's growth. In a mind such as Dr. Burzynski's the step from suspicion to reasoned investigation -- to research -- is but a short one. Thus began the research career of a deeply caring doctor destined to be remembered as a towering giant in the annals of medical history.

It is believed that cancer represents a defect in a cell's genes, notably "oncogenes," which accelerate cell growth and reproduction by division, and "tumor suppressor genes, which suppress such growth. Normally, these two functions are in balance. When defective, and out of balance, normal cells turn into cancer cells.

Dr. Burzynski's antineoplastons, (which are peptides and amino acid derivatives), take aim at defective genes in rogue cells. They "switch off" the oncogenes, and "switch on" the tumor suppressor genes. In response to this restoration, cancer cells stop multiplying, and then die.

Dr. Burzynski's next step was to discover the technique of synthesizing his antineoplaston peptides in the laboratory, so that they might be administered to patients. Thus was born his non-toxic therapy, capable of knocking out cancer cells.

The next several years were relatively tranquil for Dr. Burzynski. His research flourished, and his reputation began to grow. At the 1976 meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, (FASEB), the world's largest regular scientific gathering, his paper was selected by Associated Press as its lead story from among the 3,700 papers submitted. He received flattering publicity, and began to be noticed. He was invited to membership in several distinguished medical societies. He received prestigious awards.

The problems first arose in 1978, disguised as FDA agents. For more than 20 years this agency of the US government has persecuted Dr. Burzynski in an attempt to shut him down. Fortunately, he was allowed to conduct clinical trials, and through the intervening years has treated many patients.

Why would an agency of the US government try to throttle a doctor who, day after day, was amassing an unequaled record of success in the treatment of cancer? Many believe the answer relates to the astronomic profits of drug companies. (See The Cancer Industry, by Ralph W. Moss, published by Equinox Press). It's the other side of the "tobacco" coin. The government conveniently overlooks tobacco's linkage with cancer because shutting the tobacco industry down would wipe out millions of tobacco-taxation dollars. Like so many of the less-honorable facets of our society, it's all a sordid matter of money.

In retrospect it is curious, to say the least, that the FDA strove mightily for 20+ years to close Dr. Burzynski's doors, yet put no stop to the sale of ephedra diet aids, despite their infliction of brain-related side effects which, between 1993 and 2000, caused hundreds of "adverse event reports," including some 70 deaths. These official reports are believed to be only a fraction of the real totality.