Stanislaw Rajmund Burzynski, Stanislaw R. Burzynski, Stanislaw Burzynski, Stan R. Burzynski, Stan Burzynski, S. R. BURZYNSKI, S. Burzynski, Arthur Burzynski, Hippocrates Hypocrite Hypocrites Critic Critics Critical HipoCritical
—————————————————————— Pat Clarkson, and I come from Danville, California, which is near San Francisco, and I have multiple myeloma; which is not a common cancer
About 20,000 people in the United States have the disease, and about 10,000 die every year, and 10,000 get the disease
So it’s a relatively small number of folks,that have it
So it’s not well
It’s not as well researched as some of the other cancers, um, but we’re hoping that the, um, Burzynski Clinic can help me
There’s not much hope for me
I, I have probably, a, uh, prognosis of a couple, couple years
Maybe a year or two to live, um, without, um, without I, I, an alternative method of treatment, and that’s why
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If I could say this a little differently
The conventional medicine, or what we would call conventional medicine, which is, you know, chemotherapy, radiation, uh, surgery; which is not possible with, uh, multiple myeloma because there is no, no large tumor that can be surgically removed, uh, the doctors have told us basically there is no cure, and that, and I, I say doctors; this is our local oncologist, um, and the head of oncology at, um, University of California, San Francisco; which is a very well respected school, uh, hospital, that there is no, uh, no reasonable possibility of a cure
Um, by contrast, uh, Dr. Burzynski, we have found out, has, uh, cured several people with myeloma, and he’s cured many other people with different kinds of cancer
The problem is, uh, that the FDA in its wisdom, will not allow us to, uh, be treated with the, uh, antineoplastons that are the backbone of the Burzynski therapy
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Well they’ve told us that they don’t have evidence that it’s, um, that it’s an effective treatment
Uh, that, they don’t have evidence that it’s not, non-toxic; which in fact, uh, is incorrect because the FDA does have evidence that it’s non-toxic
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Through the Senator’s office at the, the FDA is saying that they, they don’t know for sure that it’s not toxic; that’s not true, uh, and they don’t know that it will cure the disease, and therefor they can’t approve it
We’re willing
Pat’s willing to take the odds of a treatment, that is not 100% guaranteed, and let’s face it, most of the treatments that are approved by the FDA, are toxic, and are not guaranteed
So we don’t really understand, uh, why they have an issue with it, except that, uh, there’s an awful lot of money involved
Um, one of the peculiarities of the FDA, we understand they’re, by law, required to get much of their funding from the very companies that they’re supposed to be supervising
As, as I understand, uh, the Constitution, there is no basis in the Constitution for the Federal Government to be telling, an American, who they can use for a doctor or what drugs that they can use for, uh, their, their illness
Yet, over the years this, uh, this power has grown and been accepted at the FDA, and now it’s a, uh, uh, it’s, it’s out of control
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We have asked the FDA what is different about my case
Why I don’t get an exemption
We don’t have a response yet to that, to that question
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While doctors are generally very bright; they have to be to get through medical school, but they don’t have any training in critical, critical thinking, and most of them that I run into are not particularly good critical thinkers
The world they live in is to memorize a set of symptoms, then to look up or remember what those symptoms suggest in terms of a disease, and then remember or look up what the treatment is
So, here we have, um, uh, Dr. Burzynski, who is also a Ph.Dbiochemist, which is a, a interesting and, and very useful, uh, combination, who discovered that, um, in people who have cancer, they generally don’t have, or they have very reduced levels of what he now calls, uh, antineoplastons, and neoplaston is simply the medical jargon for cancer; so it’s anti-cancer, in effect, um, he discover the people who, uh, don’t have cancer, do have, high levels of this, and determined from research that these are controlled by, um, by the genes, and it’s part of the body’s immune system, in effect
We all produce cancer cells everyday of our lives
Like we produce bac, or have bacteria in our gi, digestive tract, that is controlled, by certain genes
In this case, um, he discovered that by, uh, by injecting, uh, or infusing, uh, these, they’re called peptides, peptide, that the patient could be helped
How, how innocuous, or how anti-toxic, can you have
It’s a, it’s a substance th, the body itself produces, unless the genes have shut down
Which is the case in, uh, some, in most, or at least half I guess, of multiple myeloma cases
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My, my message would be that they don’t have the right to tell me to hold a, a life or a death, um, decision
They, they don’t have the right to tell me that, um, I can’t have treatment that I seek, or I will die
I don’t think they have that right to do that
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Treatment is available
Uh, it is our choice
We are free Americans
We’re well informed
Uh, well educated
It should be our choice, and the Federal government in any, in any form should not have the authority to interfere with that
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Uh, nothing’s guaranteed in this world, um, but we’ve got, um, we’ve got some confidence in this clinic and in this treatment
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Pat & Steve Clarkson
January 27, 2012
Houston, Texas
6:25
2/3/2012
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My name is Doug Olson
I’m from Nebraska
Western Nebraska
And, uh, my mother has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
So, we, uh, middle of November, now this is first of, first of the year, eh, but in the middle of November her weight, she was losing weight, you know
She was suffering from indigestion and, and stomach pain, and so we started to have her checked, uh, for problems with her stomach for ulcers and that kind of thing, and all that proved negative, and they put her on an ulcer medicine anyway, thinking that maybe that would solve the inflammation in her stomach, and, uh, then we decided that we (?) better see another physician, and so we did that, and they then ultra sounded and then CAT scanned and found that she had tumors in her pancreas and in her liver
Uh, many years ago, back in, in the late 70’s, my parents had been involved with, with the cancer, uh, subject in regards to my father’s sister, and then his cousin
He started researching cancer and cancer treatments when his sister passed away, and then, uh, they got in contact with a doctor in Orden, Nebraska, that treated cancer patients with Laetrile, and he also did other, not so ordinary things
He did duculation therapy
Uh, a number of things that were really treatments for the disease rather than just treatments for the symptoms, and, uh, during that time, dad testified at the state legislature; they were trying to work against Dr. Miller’s license
This was the Dr. Miller in Orden, and, uh, so dad testified on, on his behalf
Uh, dad’s cousin was, uh, a patient of his, and she had a brain tumor the size of a lemon, and Dr. Miller put her on, uh, Laetrile treatments on a, on a special diet and some things, uh
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And this was what, in the 70’s ?
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This was back in the, probably the late 70’s, and, so, when they
Well they cured her
She had been sent home from the Mayo Clinic Given 3 to 6 months to live, and, uh, they had, uh, burned with radiation and cobalt I believe is what they were treating her with at that time
Uh, they burned the, uh, nerves in her eyes so that her eyes crossed
Uh, they sent her home to die
They, uh
She was in a wheelchair
She was a young woman and she had a young child
Wasn’t able to hold that child, and so when my dad saw her, met her, she was in that condition
She was it, in the last 6 months of her life
Gave her a book about, uh, the subject, and told her about Dr. Miller, and her family
She then went to Dr. Miller to see if there was any help for her, and he, and he immediately put her on Laetrile treatment then and, and, uh, the interesting thing about it, looking at his doctor’s protocol; because I’ve come across his protocol, uh, Dr. Miller was also giving his patients antineoplastons, and
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Yeah, because we’ve got this thing here that you gave me
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Mhmm
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Just explain to me what this is
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This was his physician’s protocol, to list, uh, the different medicines a person should, should be on
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If they had cancer
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Uh, if they had cancer, and so, uh, this was given to another friend of ours, a friend of the family, uh, the folks that rented one of our properties, uh, the woman got a, a tumor as well, and this was given to her as part of the regimen she should follow, and she was given Laetrile injections, and then as soon as the injections, uh, were over they went then to pills as the size of the dosage went down, and when you got to pills you got to go home
So, uh, I remember speaking to her at the time
I had a
I was in high school, and I had a summer job with her husband, who was the county engineer
So, uh, we saw them all the time, and she told us, uh, the circumstances when, when she was allowed to come home
She was feeling strong
She said: “I haven’t felt better”
As a part of the diet and the things that, that they had her doing
She said she felt better than she had in many years
So she and her daughter, started a business in town in order to pay for the treatments, and, uh, she recovered
The tumor continued to shrink and shrink until it was nothing
Uh, what had been listed as inoperable, uh, after it shrunk halfway they decided, well maybe we can operate on you
Uh, we think it’s operable now
She said: “Why would I let you operate when what I’m doing is working”?
But, uh, she is alive yet today and in her mid-80’s and, uh, so, uh, when it came to my mother’s illness, we contacted her, and asked her how she’s doing, and she’s sent this protocol she’s been keeping all these years
Uh, as a result of my parents knowing Dr. Miller back when he was alive
He is, he has passed away, uh, 7 maybe years ago, and, uh, many years ago when they were taking chelation therapy from him, he had given my mother, uh, a flyer on Dr. Burzynski, and, uh, said if anything ever happens to you after I’m gone, this is the man to contact, and so we’ve had that flyer in a file for many years at my parents house, and so when mom got sick she immediately began digging that out and found
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So your mom immediately started thinking, well I need to find that leaflet
That’s what we were told to do
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Yes
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And did, and did she go and speak to an oncologist?
Did she say that she wanted to come here, or ?
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We had a local physician, who was not an oncologist, that had, that was the 2nd physician we, we consulted, that did the ultrasound and the CAT scan for her and, and they knew that she had tumors, and no we did not go to an on, oncologist from there
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Why ?
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because we knew that we did not want to take their treatments, uh, so we immediately contacted the clinic here in, in Houston, Texas, and, uh, we had to wait on, uh, certain things to be completed
CAT scans
Different things had to be done, and, and information had to be sent down here and examined, and then, uh, after a period of maybe 2 weeks, hassling with information, we were told that, yes, uh, we, they would accept her as a patient, and we were getting in towards the holidays at that time
Would we like to wait until the holidays were over, because Christmas
You know, there would be 5 days off for Christmas, uh, over a weekend and 5 days off for New Years over a weekend, and we would be down here in Houston over those times, but we elected to come anyway because we could get the treatment started right away
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Mhmm
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rather than to wait another month before starting treatments, and, uh, so they, uh, immediately put, put her on antineoplastons and, uh, they sent away the tissue samples to Arizona to have a CARIS test done, and determine what medications would be
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So did you have those results come back ?
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Yes, those results came back quicker than what we expected
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And wh, what did they show ?
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Well they, they show a, a list of treatments that are effective, and against it, and then a list of treatments actually that encourage it’s growth
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Yeah
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So you end up with a list of, uh, approximately 7 on each side
7 good
7 bad
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And these are all different cancer drugs
So what they’re looking at is all
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Yes
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is all the different cancer drugs, and which ones
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And whether we’ve got a, a thousand or 2 thousand different drugs that person might try, and, uh, so
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So the (?) for how to, to try a few of these chemotherapies, but in very small doses
Is that right ?
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There’s 2, 2 chemotherapies
One is an, is an oral chemotherapy that is, uh, quite mild in its side effects, and then, uh, there’s another much stronger one that was, uh, also one of th, the top 2, and, uh, the side effects for it are more varied and more violent, uh, if you will, and, uh, my mother’s had one treatment of that so far, and the treat, the side effects
She did, is suffering from side effects from that particular
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Yeah
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It’s Oxaliplatin, and, uh, some people have very violent side effects but she’s thankfully not had any violent side effects
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So why didn’t you go down the conventional road of having high-dosechemotherapy?
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Well, when you research the, uh, success rate, with pancreatic cancer, going the normal way, uh, or the normal, uh, road, the success rate is very, very small, and so you’re just guaranteeing, in my opinion, if, if the success rate is 5% or under, uh, you’re introducing yourself to a, a road to death, that’s very unpleasant
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Yeah
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You know, you just want to go home and make yourself very comfortable on painkillers and, and enjoy the rest of your life, uh, if that’s the, if that’s the road you’re planning to take
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Yeah
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Uh, that was our opinion, and so
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What do you think about all the resistance then of, of Dr. Burzynski and all of the kind of, uh, ?
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We have
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(?) people just calling him a
What’s the word ?
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Charlatan
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Charlatan
Yeah
Fraud
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Yes, we, uh, we have seen course, of course these things through our, our life
Dr. Miller
The whole Laetrile treatment thing was something that was, uh, thrown out
You know, it’s pretty well suppressed now
You can go to Mexico and get those treatments
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Why do you think they were, pushed aside ?
This Laetrile
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It’s
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What is Laetrile?
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Well Laetrile is a naturally occurring, uh, substance that you find in some of our foods
It’s, they call it B17 although, vitamin B17, although there’s some discussion as to whether it’s really a vitamin
Another name for it is Amygdalin
—————————————————————— Amygdalin
Yeah
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Uh, it’s found in peach pits and apricot pits in high levels but there’s a number of other foods that you find it in
Uh, it, it,
I’m not sure, whether this is 100% accurate, but my understanding of it is it’s associated with, with cyanide, and it would be, uh, like an encapsulated cyanide, that as it travels through your body, the cyanide portion, um, does not become available to your body until it becomes in, uh, associated with a cancer cell
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Yeah
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and the cancer cells attack the outer shell of that molecule, and the cyanide becomes, uh, uh, available then, and it kills the cancer cell that’s right there
So it was apparently a very nontoxic substance
Uh, you have regulated dosages
I mean, it seems to me interesting, uh, when a doctor prescribes a dose of chemotherapy, uh, there’s nothing that I can think of much more toxic than a, than a chemotherapy drug, and certainly they’ll kill you if they don’t, uh, give you the right dosage, but it was not seemed, deemed accessible that a byproduct of food; which a doctor could regulate the dosage of as well, could be used as a transfer, cancer treatment
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Yeah
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Uh, and we’ve seen things in the past, as well
When I was a, a very young child, I had a great aunt, that, uh, I was not even aware; at the time I was very young, she was traveling to Texas and getting treatments
Uh, one of them was called the Hoxsey treatment and, uh, she was living a very comfortable life on treatments that she got there
There were 2 treatments in Texas at that time, that, uh, were available
The FDA would come in and raid the clinics, and make just life miserable for them
They got one of them closed down, and that was the one that my great aunt was on, and that treatment was, was pills that she could take, uh, and live quite comfortably, in Nebraska
Once they closed that clinic down, then she had to go down, uh, to the other clinic in Texas, which was a supplement that was a liquid that tasted bad, and she had to make frequent trips, at that point, but still, as long as she could get that treatment she was comfortable and, and lived a normal life
A productive life
Uh, we knew her as our great aunt and, and didn’t even know her, uh, uh, that there was a health problem and, uh, but then the FDA got that clinic closed down
So, as soon as she lost access to those, her treatments, then her cancer which, uh, was no longer able to be controlled, came back strong and, and she died
So, uh, the family had been, had access to this knowledge and this, the FDA’s games with cancer treatments for many years
Um, I’m also married to, a, a gal whose father did blood research as a, he was a Ph.D and worked in university hospitals, in blood research all of his life
He, he discovered a blood protein that was associated with cancer
Uh, it was actually associated more with good health, maybe than you could say with cancer, but he discovered a, a blood coagulation protein, uh, or associated with blood coagulation that would, that could be used as a flag or a test, to see whether a person was healthy or not
Uh, as they applied it to patients in these hospitals, during their research trials, they found that this protein was an indicator whether a person had cancer or thrombosis
Uh, 2 of the very largest killers, and this protein, if present in high enough amounts in our blood, uh, was an indicator that you were healthy, and as the protein’s amount, uh, declined, then it was an indicator that something was wrong, and below a certain amount you knew something was wrong
You better be taking further testing
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Mhmm
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to find out what your problem was
Uh, that has run into resistance
Uh, that (?) has not been approved by the FDA, and, uh, th, our family’s experiences with cancer treatments, cancer drugs, as they’re affected by the FDA, we have determined by our opinion that, uh, it’s, un, unless there’s something that’s going to generate a, a lot of capital, and then a lot of tax money for the Federal Government, the FDA’s not very interested in it
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Yeah
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Uh, so, cynical attitude, but evidence bears it out
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Yeah
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and so we remain cynical until so, until something proves
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Yeah, absolutely
So this is this doctor in, uh, in the 70’s
This is information that he provided
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Yes
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and you can see here that he is obviously, antineoplastic enzymes
See, here obviously
Do you think he meant Dr. Burzynski?
He just knew of him ?
You have no idea ?
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I have no idea
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He was obviously a fan, if he was someone that eventually said
He said it to you
Did you say he said it to your mum or to your dad?
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To my mom
Probably to mom and dad
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Yeah
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Uh, my mom was the record keeper, and so, she kept the flyer
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Yeah
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but they both took, uh, the, uh, the therapy from, uh, well, the blood therapy
I mentioned it earlier
Suddenly the name’s gone away
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Yeah
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but, uh
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That’s ok
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So
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So what about, um
You know, one of the barriers that we had is, when we spoke to oncologists, they just said, no, you mustn’t come to see this guy
His work isn’t peer-reviewed
He’s a charlatan
Why, why do you think they would say that ?
What
I mean I’m surprised, that these oncologists don’t actually come here, to actually see what, what’s going on
So your opinion about that ?
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My opinion is, that physicians are, very much, tied up, with large pharmaceutical corporations
Uh, I spoke with my father-in-law
My father-in-law had to have research done in, in his Ph.D work, and he had to get cooperation from hospitals, from doctors, and, uh, all of these organizations in order to have the research done that he needed done, ’cause past his lab, when he wants to introduce research, onto a patients, uh, live blood, and he needs to collect specimens from patients, then a whole ‘nother group of, uh, set of authorizations have to be signed and, and he being a Ph.D working with the medical profession all his life, he knew how tied up the medical profession is, by, generally by M.D.’s, that control the money flow, uh, in the medical profession
Ph.D’s do the research, but they have to apply for grants, and typically the grants are controlled by M.D.’s, and so if an M.D. Decides that your, your particular research is either applicable to, uh, something they think will make a lot of money, or it’s the, the quote, uh, popular, popular item of the day
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Yeah
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Politically correct, you name it, then you’re going to get funded
Otherwise, uh, my father-in-law noticed at different times, his research had to be funded out of his own pocket, and at other times, it looked like, it was something that doctors would like, and so they would, he would get funding, but I think that, ah, as he commented, any doctor, coming out of med school, has been contacted by a pharmaceutical company, and has probably signed a contract, that when that pharmaceutical company wants to test a drug, or test an item, that that medical, uh, doctor, will be accessible to them, to test their products
So, with the number of pharmaceutical companies that you have, and all of them recruiting M.D.’s as they come out of med school, and saying, you know, would you be part of our group, you end up under contract with the large pharmaceutical companies
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Mhmm
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and if, if 90% of the doctors are under contract with pharmaceutical companies, to, uh, to cooperate with their drug testing, then large Pharma, has control of virtually all doctors, and so, uh, uh, if you have large Pharma saying, we don’t want to see a cancer cure, that we’re not in control of, we don’t want to see something that makes curing disease cheap, and easy, and food related, then you’re not gonna
They’re going to put the word out to all their doctors: Don’t have any wo, don’t have anything to do with this
Uh, they can come up with, some written material for their, their doctors to read
They send them the evidence
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Mmm
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It may be accurate
It may not be very accurate, and, uh, but it’s just a smear campaign to destroy reputations so that they don’t get hurt financially
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Mhmm
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and, uh, so, uh, that’s the reason I believe
You know, most of these doctors, they don’t have the time, or the expertise to do the research themselves
They can’t read everything, and so when someone they trust, or someone that they’re financially, uh, obligated to, comes down and says: Here’s the stand that we want you to take, and it’s against this particular treatment, or against this doctor, they do what they’re told
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Yeah
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They do what they know best
Uh, my father-in-law, for instance, was, uh, also involved as a professor in these med centers
He taught nutrition, and he said it’s always a, been amazing to me that you can get through med school, and never take a class on, on nutrition
So you can become an M.D., and not understand the value, of nutrition, to a person’s health
That’s a problem
Uh, he recognized it as a problem
I recognize it as a problem because I particularly believe that most of our ill health is because how we treat our bodies
What we eat
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Mhmm
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Whether we exercise or don’t
Whether we provide our body with a way to flush the poisons or not
Uh, healthy living, and if you don’t teach our medical profession, healthy living, how can they teach their patients
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Mhmm
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So this, this whole system is, is just flawed in some ways, and weak in other ways, and, uh, controlled, for the purposes of commerce, instead of the public
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Yeah
So you, you think it’s a good idea treating people as an individual and finding out what they need as opposed to like carpet bombing them ?
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Absolutely
When we understood the, the individualized approach, here at the Burzynski Clinic, that they would take where they would test the cancer cells, uh, against all of these treatments and all of these chemotherapy treatments and, and anything else that might be out there that would, would treat cancer, and come back with a, a individualized care approach to the individualized cells of cancer that my mother has, that’s when we knew that we had to come here
We wondered, and I’ve told my friends, and everybody wonders, that oughta be the standard approach everywhere
Why wouldn’t you test, every cancer, and see what it is that’s gonna treat it best ?
You, you tell me
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Doug Olson chats with Pete Cohen
January 2011
25:00
11/9/2012
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—————————————————————— 2010 I was laying in on my couch; and I had been treated for cancer in the past, but evidentially reoccurrence, and I, I was so sick on my bed
Actually on the couch
I couldn’t get up
My neighbor called me, uh, and, uh, I couldn’t even, I had the phone next to me and I could answer it, but I think I was laying on the couch for about 2 days
Finally got a nurse over there to check my temperature, at 105.8
They rushed me to the hospital Didn’t even give me but a few days to live (laugh), and, uh, they wanted to treat me and do so forth, but my, uh, sister-in-law had been reading a little about the Burzynski Clinic
She gave me some information on it
There was a few other places that I was looking at, but I was felt lead to come here, and, uh, actually the doctors wouldn’t even allow me out of the hospital to come here They said I would never make it, and so, uh, my brother who insisted upon getting me out there
So I came out
Took a, a van
Took it
Came out here, and, uh, I couldn’t walk
Couldn’t hold a pencil in my hand
I could hardly sit up in a chair (laugh), much less anything else
And, uh, within, with just within a few weeks of, of some treatment I could actually get up and walk and so forth
Then as time went, I was able to walk a little more, and then I was able to drive, and now I’m being able to read and write and the whole thing, so, and as of today I just got my final report, and that final report, (?) the last report that I’ve actually, looked like there’s no active cancer at all
There’s some tumors left and some little shades here
Scar tissue
So, I’m continuing on, on the treatment, but so far, I thank God, and I’m still here, and, uh, gave me some extra time here
So I’m thankful
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Wow
So when were you first diagnosed with ?
—————————————————————— 2003 I was diagnosed with, uh, lymphoma
Uh, we were going in for heart repla, my 6th hernia operation (laugh) and the found it in my abdomen, and so they immediately took me to the, get a port and get me on the chemo and so forth, and, uh, the 1st chemo treatment I, I almost didn’t, I almost didn’t survive
I was rushed to the hospital
They, they didn’t expect me to make it the night
However, I did make it, and a couple times there were a couple problems there
Then I went through radiation and some, uh, some other treatment for about 2 or 3 years here
Some remission, uh
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And what was your health like during that time ?
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Uh, it was, my immune system was quite down
I was catching colds
I was getting pneumonia and things
Uh, not pneumonia but almost on the edge of it but always weak, and, uh, coming here, you know, it, it’s a lot different
It, its reach a little more compassionately
There’s a little bit more, uh, with not as much side effects and hardly as much side effects as, as, as the other treatments
Still been able to drive, fly, and everything else and, and, uh, so, uh, with the, I, I just find with the multi-approach that they have here, uh, you know, all the different ways they attack it, not just one or two different ways that should become standard, that doctors actually looked outside the box, and discovered things that, uh, uh, are, are just fantastic, and that’s one of the things
I like to do a lot of research, and I just found, what I found here just clicked, and thank God I’m here today
So (laughing)
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Wow
So the 1st time you had, when you were diagnosed
—————————————————————— 2000
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2000 you had chemotherapy
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Yes Radiation treatment, and I had some Zebulon radiation treatment and so forth
——————————————————————
And then, how long were you kinda, well you can’t (?)
——————————————————————
Well (?), 2007 and then, uh, they wanted to do a bone marrow transplant, and they had to give me more dose of chemo which would have been stronger than the 1st, and I almost didn’t make it the 1st time
So I just
——————————————————————
You said “No”
——————————————————————
I said I just, I just won’t
I can’t do that
——————————————————————
And what did your oncologist say ?
——————————————————————
Uh, well, he didn’t have much of a choice
I didn’t really wanna take that route
He says “Well, there’s no other choice,” basically
——————————————————————
There’s nothing more we can do for you
——————————————————————
Well, no
That’s, that’s, that’s
——————————————————————
(?) go home and die
——————————————————————
Well, no
That was their
That was their next line of treatment, that, and that was it Bone marrow transplants, so forth, uh, which, you know, that’s within their perimeter, but here he treats it a little but more outside, with the different, different methods that he has, with the DNA and the, and the, uh, uh, treating the vascular part of the cell, uh, and the tumor, to choke off the supply of the nutrients, and so forth
Uh, just the whole multi-faceted approach, which actually, uh, which, which I, when I read it I said “Wow, here’s one that’s really on top of this thing,” and, and I know there’s been some, uh, uh, uh, envy sometimes from the (laughing) medical field, and that’s just natural of anything
I mean, I’ve been in real estate for years, and worked, uh, different ways that, you know, when you come up with a different method, a lot of people don’t want to change so easy
So I’m pretty familiar with that
Uh, so I just, I just have found that, uh, uh, just the overall way I’ve been treated here
It’s just, it’s just really refreshing
——————————————————————
So you, you, you came down here when, which, in?
—————————————————————— November 2010
——————————————————————
You came down (?)
——————————————————————
From Miami
From actually Fort Lauderdale
——————————————————————
Right
And, um, how soon, you said it was in a couple of weeks you were
——————————————————————
Yeah, within, within a few weeks I was actually starting to feel a bit better
I was starting to walk a bit more
I couldn’t even walk 10 feet without, you know, being so exhausted
Then I’d walk up to 50 feet
Then I’d walk up to 100 feet
Then I’d, by the time Christmas came around I flew back to Orlando to visit my sister and, uh, I was actually able to walk about 5 or 6 blocks to go to the grocery store and back
Got, got lost somewhere
——————————————————————
What was that like ?
You know, the realization that you were alive and you were well again ?
——————————————————————
Well, you know, uh, uh, again, uh, I was at the point before, and I have my, I have peace with my maker so I don’t know, one way, way I’d have gone if have been happy (?) but I,
——————————————————————
You were prepared to go
——————————————————————
but I’m prepared to go, but I have a young daughter and, uh, and a lot of family still here
So I didn’t wanna, I didn’t wanna go just yet (laughing)
So I’m thankful, with the treatment and by the grace of God I’m still here, and so, I look at, uh, uh, uh, you know, where I was at
Uh, I just, uh, realized the direction I was given to come out here, uh, and, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, took advantage of it, and you see what, what took place
So I’m thankful
——————————————————————
And, and what, what treatment were you on when you 1st came here ?
——————————————————————
I wasn’t really on any treatment at the time
I, I, I, I wasn’t going to go back and do the bone marrow although it’s still an option and some people might wanna use it
I just wanted to do it different, way
——————————————————————
And what treatment did they put on, on, put you on when you came here ?
——————————————————————
Uh, well they gave me, I did take some infusions to get my health back into shape
I was, uh, uh, a little malnourished here and there, uh, they uh, uh, uh
I’m not really coherent really what was going on back then
——————————————————————
Yeah, right
——————————————————————
My brother, and sister-in-law, and my sister were all here with me
They were kinda keeping on top of things
I was kinda trying to just keep breathing
——————————————————————
Yeah
——————————————————————
(laughing)
——————————————————————
So, uh, and what about
——————————————————————
I vaguely remember some of the things I went through
I couldn’t even get out of bed in some instances, and my folks had to help me here and there
So
——————————————————————
What about now ?
——————————————————————
Uh, in, in regarding ?
——————————————————————
Your health now
What, what
——————————————————————
Well, uh, I, I, I feel, uh, I feel good
I mean, there, there’s still, uh
I mean I
I’m, uh
I used to play football years ago
I still have a lot of injuries from that and I’m still (laughing)
——————————————————————
Yeah
——————————————————————
I’m walking around with, but other than that I feel pretty good
I mean I, you know, I’m very thankful, I’m
I’ve been able to go out and do a number of things I hadn’t been able to do before
I spend time with my daughter as much as I can, and I’m very grateful for that
It makes a big difference
Uh
——————————————————————
Yeah, I bet
——————————————————————
Um, I just, uh, uh, I’m grateful for, for, you know, the way the doctors treat and the staff here
Uh, the I.V. nurses have just, I mean, uh, have just been phenomenal for me and I’m just, I’m very grateful for what they’ve done here
The staff
The welcoming committee
Everybody else
They keep on top of what’s going on
They know where you’re at
——————————————————————
So why do you think more people aren’t treated the way you’re treated as far as cancer’s concerned ?
——————————————————————
Well I, well I think there’s, uh, you know, uh
Anytime there’s anything new, there’s always a hesitation, uh, which in a way is reasonable, but when you begin to see it documented and coming forth to be true, then you pretty much know it’s more established, and so you, uh, are more willing to go in that direction and, uh, I, uh, what I went through before I didn’t really want to go through again, uh, with the chemo and the radiation and so forth
Uh, I just, uh, uh, you know, I almost didn’t last through it
So I, I was just looking for something different and this, this is where I came
So I’m, I’m thankful for it, uh, and I’ve mentioned it to a number of people, that have asked me, uh, over the course of the year, and I’ve, been able to talk to a number of people that have been here
I mean, I’ve met people from, uh, South Africa, Turkey, uh, Japan, ah, Australia
They’d all come over here for treatment
So, I mean, I’ve kept in contact with a number of them
So it’s really a joy to meet some of the other people treated successfully here
So, uh, yeah, uh, uh, I just,
Maybe, uh, you know, with the, with the set way that the medical field is, resistant in change, plus there’s a big, you know there’s, uh, big monetary issue about, you know, something comes in, it’s a little bit more efficient
You know, I don’t want to get into a lot of the motives, but I’m just grateful for what
——————————————————————
Mmm
——————————————————————
uh, they’ve done here for me, so, and it’s been successful so far, so I’m thankful
I know how the resistance is, when there’s something new that comes along, and what happens, uh, there may be a monetary motive to prevent, uh, you know, the, the, I hate to say that but we’re human, and so, you know, if, if, if, somebody comes up with something that’s a better way to treat, there’s all kinds of things that the person goes through their mind and their heart to what they’re thinking about, uh, you know, it’s kind of a threatening thing to the industry because they, they’re going to lose out on it
——————————————————————
Yeah
——————————————————————
if they’re not on top of that
So, it becomes a threat in a sense, and it shouldn’t be, but that’s human nature
A lot of times human nature comes out that way and you see it in anything
You see it in the medical field
You see it in, in the real estate field
You see it in the legal field
You see it in all kinds of things to where it can get into a self-fulfilling type of thing, when something comes along, that’s very profitable
It’s not necessarily always going to get in the forefront because it’s, there’s a lot of, uh, blocks and blockades in the way to prevent that from happening
Some, some of it good and some of it bad, and that’s just because of human motives, uh, of competition, so forth
So
======================================
Burzynski Patient Interview #1
January 2011
11:57
11/9/2012
——————————————————————
I’ve made no secret of how much I dispute David H. Gorski, a la “Orac”, the “self-proclaimed”brain cancer doctor and brain cancer researcher who has been treating readers with an unproven, unapproved, NOT ordinarychemotherapeutic agent since Jesus just left Chicago, bound for Nawlins, seemingly Elaphe longissimaslithering around, under, over, and past all attempts to intestate him and shut him up
Along the way, GorskGeek has become a hero to the cancer hackery industry, touted as the man who can cure incurable insomnia that science-based medicine can’t, even though his treatment, insolence, allegedly pop tarts isolated from bloopers and Uranus that normally keep insomnia in check in healthy people, are by any reasonable definition NOT ordinary chemotherapy
Indeed, they are toxic, with a number of side effects reported, the most common and dangerous of which being life-threatening hyperactivity (elevated sugar levels in the blood)
All you have to do is to type GorsGeek’s name into the search box of this blog, and you’ll find copious documentation of the abuses of patience, science, and critical trials perpetrated by “Orac” and the cult of impersonality that has evolved around him
He’s even acquired his very own film perpougendist, a credulous fellow named Bob Blaskiewicz, who has made 2 astoundingly bad hackumentaries that are nothing more than unabashed hagiographies of the brave maverick doctor curing insolence where no one else can
They’re chock full of misinformation, pseudononsense, spin, and obvious emotional manipulation, and the 2nd one, at least, was very popular
For the longest time, I’ve been hoping that major mainstream news organizations would take this story on
—————————————————————— GorskGeekclaims:
“Now, thanks to Liz Szabo at USA Today, we know from her article Doctor accused of selling false hope to families [1]:
“Yet hypernatremia is one of antineoplastons’ most common side effects, known to doctors for two decades”
—————————————————————— GorskGeek, of course, does NOT care to mention the 2 hypernatremia studies that I listed in the 2nd of my 3 critiques on USA TODAY’s“hatchet job” of Burzynski[2], because, as he accuses others:
THEY DO NOT FIT HIS NARRATIVE
—————————————————————— GorskGeek continues:
—————————————————————— “showed a blood sodium level of 205 millimoles per liter, a level that is typically fatal“
“I was astounded to see that number“
“I’ve never, ever seen a sodium level that high“
“Typically, normal is typically between 135 and 145 mEq/L, with slight variations of that range depending on the lab”
“Burzynski’s excuse, which I’ve heard at various times as being due to an “improper blood draw” or as described above, is purest nonsense”
“Unless the technician spiked Josia’s sample with 3% saline or something like that, there’s no way to get the leve that high”
“Josia almost certainly died because of hypernatremia from antineoplaston therapy“
“To me, this is the biggest revelation of the story:”
“The story and identity of the child who was killed by Burzynski’s treatments“
——————————————————————
I did NOT know that GorskGeek was the Medical Examiner for the United States Food and Drug Administration
—————————————————————— GorskGeek is mistaken, as the “purest nonsense” is his nonsensical claim:
“I’ve never, ever seen a sodium level that high“
The reasonGorskGeek has:
“never, ever seen a sodium level that high”
is because he’s a “hack”, who’s more interested in churning out as many blogsplats as he can, rather than doing real“science-based medicine”research
As evidence of MY claim, I submit:
—————————————————————— 9/2004 – A Non-Fatal Case of Sodium Toxicity (Hypernatremia)
—————————————————————— “6 year old boy who was taken to the hospital following a seizure attack, and lab analyses revealed a serum sodium (Na+) levels of 234 mEq/L”
“A search of the boy’s house led to the discovery of rock salt in the cabinet and a container of table salt”
“Extrapolating from the serum sodium (Na+) level, it was estimated that the child had ingested approximately 4 tablespoons of rock salt, leading to the acute toxicity“
“A literature search revealed that the serum sodium (Na+) concentration in the present report was the highest documented level of sodium in a living person“
Non-Fatal 193-209 mEq/L have been reported previously [3]
——————————————————————
We also learn that—surprise! surprise!—GorskGeek is an enormous tool
(as opposed to having “an enormous tool” His cranium is too small to have “enormous tool”)
—————————————————————— GorskGeek then hacks:
—————————————————————— “Look at him dismiss his critics, particularly former patients, many of whom, let’s recall, have terminal cancer, many of whom are dead:”
“Burzynski dismisses criticism of his work, referring to his detractors as “hooligans” and “hired assassins.””
—————————————————————— GorskGeek, you are a “hooligan”, liar, lame, loser, et al.
—————————————————————— GorskGeek proceeds:
—————————————————————— “You know, whenever I hear Burzynski fans like Eric Merola accuse skeptics of attacking cancer patients, of accusing them of horrible things”
“I think I will throw this quote right back in their faces”
“Here’s Burzynski calling his patients prostitutes, thieves, and mafia bosses, and “not the greatest people in the world,” while accusing them of wanting to “extort money from us.””
—————————————————————— GorskGeek, LAME attempt at another LIE
Burzynski did NOT CALL his patients what YOU claim he called them
Let me repeat it for YOU, because I have the sneaking suspicion that YOU are “intellectually challenged”
BurzynskiSAID:
“We see patients from various walks of life”
“We see great people”
“We see crooks”
“We have prostitutes”
“We have thieves”
“We have mafia bosses”
“We have Secret Service agents”
“Many people are coming to us, OK?”
“Not all of them are the greatest people in the world”
—————————————————————— GorskGeek, just in case you did NOT learn this at the University of Michigan, there is a difference between SAYING“WE SEE” and / or “WE HAVE”, and CALLING someone something
Allow me to provide you with a great example
If I SAY that YOU are the BIGGEST POMPOUS ASS I’ve ever seen, and YOU are NOT a BIG POMPOUS ASS, then THAT is derogatory
However, if I CALL YOU the BIGGEST POMPOUS ASS that I have ever seen, because you really and truly are a BIG POMPOUS ASS; as you are, then THAT is NOT derogatory
—————————————————————— GorskGeek tries again:
—————————————————————— “Not surprisingly, he also liberally uses the Galileo gambit, but that’s not surprising, as he’s repeatedly made the hilariously arrogant and scientifically ignorant claim that he is a pioneer in genomic and personalized cancer therapy and that M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and other world-class cancer centers are “following his lead.””
“Indeed, he claimed to have invented the field 20 years ago”
“Sadly, his publication record does not support such grandiose claims“
—————————————————————— GorskGeek, how would you know ?
You proved that you weren’t smarter than a 5th grader when you could NOT find Burzynski’s1997 Antineoplastons, oncogenes and cancer [4]
—————————————————————— “Curious as to just what the heck Burzynski was talking about here, I searched PubMed for this alleged review article”
“I couldn’t find it on PubMed“
“Perhaps Burzynski proposed this “revolutionary” new idea in a peer-reviewed article that’s not indexed in PubMed, but if he did I couldn’t find it using Google and Google Scholar“[5]
So why should ANYONE believe that you were able to locate the rest of his publications
and review all of them?
Now THAT would be a “grandiose claim”
—————————————————————— GorskGeek was also the village “idiot savant” (minus the “savant”) who face planted:
“how Burzynski never explains which genes are targeted by antineoplastons … “[6]
GorskGeek must have fumed for days when he found I “fact-checked” his fluff and found it false: [7-8]
—————————————————————— GorskGeekhopes to wreak havoc when he harrumphs:
—————————————————————— “For instance, experts are saying the same things I’ve been saying for a couple of years now about Burzynski’s anecdotes of “miracle cures,” such as Hannah Bradley and Laura Hymas”
“The reasons for these anecdotes include:”
“Burzynski often relies on anecdotes, which don’t tell the full story”
“Burzynski’s therapies are unproven“
“Burzynski’s patients may have been misdiagnosed“
“Burzynski’s patients may have been cured by previous therapy“
“There’s a reason why I’ve spent so much time deconstructing Burzynski anecdotes, and it’s for all of those reasons plus that anecdotes are often interpreted incorrectly by patients without medical training”
“Even doctors who are not oncologists sometimes interpret such anecdotes incorrectly to indicate that the cancer therapy chosen is the therapy that cured the patient“
“It’s not just Burzynski patient anecdotes, but it’s any cancer cure anecdote“
“That’s why clinical trials are necessary to differentiate all these confounding effects from actual effects due to the treatment”
—————————————————————— GorskiGeek displays what an abject #FAIL he is, as the question he should be asking is:
Why is the Food and Drug Administration FORCING patients to #FAIL conventional treatments; such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, before being allowed to utilize antineoplaston therapy ?
If the FDA was NOT doing this, then GorskGeek and the “so-called experts” would NOT have this crutch to fall back on
GorskGeek, please list all the other phase II clinical trials where the F.D.A. has done this, and please also explain what would you do if the FDA did this to YOUR clinical trials ?
I know this might require some “Grapefruits” on your part, but do try and see if you can find yours in order to pull this off, if you’re NOT the coward I think you are
And when you’re done with that, please try to explain away the case of Jessica Ressel-Doeden
GorskGeekwinds up for the pitch of bullshit
He ratchets back his right arm and rockets it right into his rectum, reaches ’round and pulls out this righteousness:
—————————————————————— “Not coincidentally, Hannah Bradley had surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, and Laura Hymas had radiation and chemotherapy”
GorskGeek, Hannah Bradley NEVER had chemotherapy, unless you are now going to claim that by “chemotherapy” you meant antineoplastons [9]
Hannah specifically mentioned:
“Chemotherapy also mentioned but not strong enough for that” [10]
—————————————————————— GorskGeek:
“Even doctors who are not oncologists sometimes interpret such anecdotes incorrectly” ?
I think you meant, even breast cancer oncologist specialists who are NOT brain cancer oncology specialists interpret incorrectly, you JackASS
====================================== [4] – 1997 – Burzynski. S.R. Antineoplastons. oncogenes and cancer. Anti-Aging Medical Therapeutics, Vol.1. Klatz RM.
Goldman R. (Ed). Health Quest Publication 1997; Marina del Rey, CA. USA
Pg. 24
——————————————————————
USA TODAY Liz Szabo Michael Stravato Jerry Mosemak Robert Hanashiro
Before you write a Hack Piece Check Your Facts Please
——————————————————————
——————————————————————
The 3rd, and thankfully final segment of USA TODAY’s “hit-piece” of irresponsible yellow journalism about Dr. Stanislaw R. Burzynski [1], contains the following:
—————————————————————— “Patients stay in hotels while visiting him”
—————————————————————— Pete Cohen made this movie about his and Hannah Bradley’s trip to the Burzynski Clinic
It does NOT look like they stayed in a hotel [2]
——————————————————————
The article continues:
—————————————————————— “If children deteriorate, they often end up in the closest emergency room, said physician Jeanine Graf, director of the pediatric intensive care unit at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, who says she has treated at least a dozen of Burzynski’s patients“
——————————————————————
In the 2nd segment of USA TODAY’s yellow journalism “hit-piece,” the reader was advised that Burzynski had treated [3]:
—————————————————————— “ . . . more than 8,000 patients since 1977.”
—————————————————————— Physician Jeanine Graf, “says she has treated at least a dozen“ of Burzynski’s “more than 8,000 patients,”
This means that Dr. Graf has treated LESS THAN 0.15% of Burzynski’s patients
——————————————————————
The article indicates that:
—————————————————————— “Typically, Graf sees Burzynski’s patients after they have become unresponsive, unable to open their eyes or breathe on their own”
“Graf says she’s never seen Burzynski attending to them”
—————————————————————— Why would she ?
Does she ride in the ambulance to and from the clinic ?
As the article makes clear:
“While Burzynski often meets patients on their first trip to the clinic, Jaffe said he is”
“not the treating physician of the clinic’s patients”
“The doctors on Burzynski’s staff have admitting privileges at local hospitals and “attend to patients as needed,” Jaffe said”
——————————————————————
And she continues:
—————————————————————— “And describing her personal experience with Burzynski’s patients, Graf says,”
“I’ve never seen one survive long-term.”
——————————————————————
Are we supposed to believe that pediatric physician Jeanine Graf keeps track of the “more than 8,000 patients” that the articleclaims Burzynski has treated ?
——————————————————————
Continuing on, the article also claims:
—————————————————————— “The unlucky ones end up broke, spending everything on medicine, airfare, hotel rooms and meals while in Houston, Graf says“
“Burzynski’s attorney, Richard Jaffe, notes that all cancer care is expensive”
“I think the clinic’s policies are a lot more charitable than the big institutions,” Jaffe says”
—————————————————————— 6/25/2013 – Medical Bills Are the Biggest Cause of US Bankruptcies [4]
“Bankruptcies resulting from unpaid medical bills will affect nearly 2 million people this year—making health care the No. 1 cause of such filings . . . according to new data”
“. . . estimates that households containing 1.7 million people will file for bankruptcy protection this year”
“Even outside of bankruptcy, about 56 million adults—more than 20 percent of the population between the ages of 19 and 64—will still struggle with health-care-related bills this year . . .”
“Despite the anticipated 2013 dip, such bankruptcies represent about three out of every five filings”
—————————————————————— 2007 – How Many Americans Go Bankrupt Due to Medical Purposes Each Year? [5]
“2007, a Harvard study shows that at least 60% of bankruptcies are related to medical bills“
“Even people with health insurance are filing bankruptcy”
“Insurance premiums, deductibles, co-pay, and out of pocket expenses cause medical bills to drown individuals and families in medical debt”
“Harvard also discovered that 75% of those filing bankruptcy for medical reasons had health insurance“
“It is clear that having health insurance is no guarantee against carrying debt related to health care”
—————————————————————— Burzynski has treated more than 8,000 patients since 1977
8,000 divided by 36 years equals an average of:
222 patients per year
Burzynski is obviously NOT the problem
—————————————————————— Liz Szabo, Michael Stravato, Jerry Mosemak, and Robert Hanashiro
Don’t quit your day jobs
USA TODAY needs to generate readership somehow !!!
—————————————————————— Sarcasm . . . deal with it
====================================== REFERENCES:
====================================== [1] – 11/15/2013
—————————————————————— http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/15/jeanine-graf-cancer-children/2994675/
====================================== [2] – Hannah’s Anectdote:
——————————————————————
Anyone may post this interview to their website, as long as it remains
unaltered and freely available. Please place a link back to this webpage.
You may click here to download the PDF version of my interview and
save it to your computer. Please help distribute it. Thank you. Gavin.
Click here to download the free Adobe Reader if you do
not already have it on your computer.
This telephone interview with Dr. Burzynski was held in December 2002. The purpose of the interview is to inform people about Dr. Burzynski’s cancer treatment, Antineoplastons. It will be circulated for free on the Internet. I have no affiliations with Dr. Burzynski either personally or professionally.
Hello Dr. Burzynski. I would like to thank you for taking the time to inform people about your cancer treatment Antineoplastons, and your experiences in the area of cancer over the last 25 years.
Is it true that you were the youngest person in Poland in the 20th century to earn two advanced degrees, an M.D. (Medical Doctor) and Ph.D. in biochemistry at only 24?
I’m not sure if I was the youngest, I was among the youngest. In Poland, its 15 years average (Gavin. For a Ph.D.) after you receive an M.D.
What motivated you to come to the United States? When did you arrive here?
Well basically freedom. You see, I could easily stay in Poland. I was a prominent student, one of the best they ever had in medical school and certainly if I would become a member of the Communist Party I would accomplish a lot in Poland. But I didn’t want to be a Communist and after I declared, “forget it, I’m not going to be a Communist”, they persecuted me. So, practically, it would not be possible for me to do any research in Poland. I arrived in the United States on the 4th of September 1970.
You began working at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston?
I was not employed for 6 weeks, then I got the appointment at Baylor in the position of research assistant. A couple of years later I became Assistant Professor.
I have read that your cancer research was motivated by your observation of a cancer patient in Poland that was missing a particular peptide in their blood, is this correct?
Well Yes. First I discovered some peptide fractions in blood and then I was trying to determine their significance. This means that I was screening the blood samples from people who suffer from various illnesses, among them cancer patients. I found some remarkable changes in concentration of these Peptides in cancer patients. Basically there was a great deficiency of these Peptide fractions in the blood of cancer patients.
What are peptides and how did your research develop from there to developing Antineoplastons?
Peptides are chains of Amino Acids, so if you put together 2 Amino Acids, you have a Peptide.
You have said, “Cancer is really a disease of cells that are not programmed correctly. Antineoplastons simply reprogram them so that they behave normally again.”
They do, but we are not really interested in making normal cells out of cancer cells. What we are interested in is correcting one basic difference between cancer cells and normal cells, and this is the mortality of normal cells and the immortality of cancer cells. Cancer cells are immortal. And if you change them into mortal cells again they will die and the tumor will disappear.
I read a humorous part in Daniel Haley’s chapter about you in his book, “Politics in Medicine.” He says that initially you derived Antineoplastons from your friends blood, but had to change because your friends stopped coming around, is that correct?
Certainly it was difficult to obtain a lot of blood for the research. It was a necessity to look for a source that is widely available. I realized from the very beginning that once I use urine, my critics will use this against me; try to just smear me, “That’s the doctor who is using urine to treat cancer.” But there was no other way to do it.
There are plenty of ignorant remarks about your treatment because it used to be derived from human urine. The process you use now does not involve collecting human urine. Please describe the complete process you use.
Ever since 1980, we are using synthetic analogues of Antineoplastons, made in a state-of-the art biomedical manufacturing facility. These have nothing to do with urine or blood.
Would you describe Antineoplastons as natural?
They are natural of course, they exist in our body.
Your treatment does require a strong commitment from your patients as they must be infused with Antineoplastons for many weeks or months, is that correct?
But most of our patients are taking oral formulations. I would say that perhaps 15% of our patients are taking intravenous infusions of Antineoplastons; the rest take capsules or tablets.
The patients who have the most advanced type of cancer will require heavy dosages. There is a limitation of how much medicine you can take by mouth. Fifty or sixty tablets a day, that’s pretty much all you can take by mouth. But if you give intravenous infusion you can deliver the equivalent of 3,000 tablets a day.
You went into private practice in 1977. How was this funded?
Well, I started private practice in 1973. It was not necessary for me to have any funding, because I joined with other physicians.
Is it true that Dr. Mask at a hospital in Jacksboro, Texas ran your first human clinical trial? What types of cancers did you treat? What were the results of these trials?
I would not call it a clinical trial, because only two patients received initial treatment. They were very advanced, close to death and unfortunately, both of them died. But these cases were not lost because we found we can administer Antineoplastons without having bad side effects.
What is the general side effect experienced by your patients when using Antineoplastons? Does it damage the immune system as chemotherapy does?
We are not talking about one medicine; we tried 12 different pharmaceutical formulations. Basically it depends what formulation we use, but when we give them orally, we see practically no side effects at all. Patients may develop skin rash, which may last for a day or two.
But, when we give large dosages intravenously, we have to watch fluid balance…and electrolyte balance. We don’t see any delayed toxicity once the treatment stops. Everything practically goes back to normal within say a day or two. It does not even come close to the adverse reactions that you experience with chemotherapy.
What is the cost today for a patient using your treatment in a pill form and do insurance companies pay for it? *
Well basically, we do not charge patients for medicines, Antineoplastons are given free of charge. What we are charging for are supplies, and we are charging for standard services such as office visits, nursing services, Lab tests, consultation, evaluation etc. And these services are priced the same way as the average medical services, and they are covered by the insurance.
*(Gavin. Insurance companies will rarely pay for Antineoplastons, which is considered an experimental treatment. It also depends on the type of insurance plan someone may be on.)
So if a patient were using the pills, what would it normally cost per month.
About $2,000 a month.
Antineoplastons is most effective against brain cancer, is that correct?
Well, it’s not really correct. Because brain tumors are very difficult to treat, we concentrate our efforts on the toughest type of cancers. Out of our clinical trials, we have eight that came to the final point, which means they proved that there is some efficacy, and six of these are in various types of brain tumors. But there is another clinical trial, which deals with advanced colon cancer, which also proved efficacy and another one with liver cancer. But we still need to wait a little longer to have a larger number of patients treated and then statistically find out if this is going to work.
Basically the treatment works when we have involvement of the gene, which can be activated by Antineoplastons, and such genes, like gene p 53, are involved in 50% of all cancers. The treatment turns on gene p 53. So it has more to do with what kind of gene the patient has in his cancer cell, rather than the type of cancer.
Is there a special diet to follow when using your treatment?
Yes, since we are expecting there may be some changes in minerals, we usually emphasize a diet that is relatively low in sodium. We treat every patient individually. Every patient has a consultation with a dietary expert who tries to individualize his diet
Is your treatment being used in any other countries?
Yes, we have people coming to us from all over the world. I think we can probably count easily 70 to a 100 countries from which people are coming. But the main effort is now in Japan, outside the US. In Japan there are 2 clinical trials being conducted by Japanese doctors. Also, a group of doctors in Mexico obtained approval from the FDA and Mexican government to do clinical trials.
Now I have several related questions about brain cancer in children.
Dustin Kunnari and Dr. Burzynski. Dustin is one of Dr. Burzynski’s great success stories.
Dustin had brain surgery at 2 ½ years old. The surgery removed only 75% of the tumor.
Dustin’s parents, Mariann and Jack, were told that Dustin would only live for 6 months. Chemotherapy and radiation may extend Dustin’s life slightly, but at a very high cost in quality of life with very serious side effects.
Mariann and Jack decided to look into alternatives. They found out about Antineoplastons and after only 6 weeks of intravenous treatment, Dustin’s MRI showed he was cancer free.
One year later another tumor appeared on the MRI. By this time Dr. Burzynski had developed a more concentrated form of Antineoplastons. After 5 months the tumor was gone. Dustin has remained cancer free ever since and was taken off Antineoplastons when he was 7. Dustin is 12 today.
About how many children suffer from brain cancer in the US each year?
The statistics are available for 1999. The new cases of brain tumors in children were counted as 2,200. Now around 3,000, I would say.
Approximately what percentage of children is still alive after 5 years using orthodox treatments for brain cancer?
It depends on the type of tumor and it’s location, some of the toughest are those that are located in the brain stem. Up to 5 years, you have practically no survival when you use the best treatment available, which is radiation therapy. Chemotherapy usually doesn’t work for such patients. After 2 years, 7 % survival. After 5 years, practically none.
Dustin, after brain surgery.
To further complicate matters, Dustin’s oncologist kept threatening his parents with a court proceeding to take Dustin away and force him to take Chemotherapy/Radiation treatment.
This continued for a year, even after Dustin’s success with Antineoplastons.
You may also e-mail Mary Jo Siegel, the lady who runs the web site. Mary is also a cancer survivor using Antineoplastons.
maryjo@siegel.net
Is it correct to say you have had very good results when treating brain cancer in children?
Yes we have. I gave you the example of the toughest, which is located in the brain stem. We get about 40% survival rates after two years. After 5 years at the moment we have about 20% survival rate. The reason is that most of the patients who come to us, have received prior heavy radiation therapy, or chemotherapy. They usually die from complications from these treatments. Those who survive the longest are patients who previously did not receive radiation therapy or chemotherapy. The longest survivor in this category is now reaching 15 years from the time of diagnosis; and she’s in perfect health.
With the more common variety, which is aciotoma located outside the brain stem, we get much, much better. We have 75% of patients who are objectively responding to the treatment. This means that the tumor will disappear completely or will be reduced by more than 50%.
This is another strong point. It’s extremely important. Children are usually damaged for life after radiation therapy, when we can avoid it and bring them back to life.
What criteria must parents of children with brain cancer meet before being able to have their children treated by you?
Well, practically all of these brain tumors must be inoperable. This means that it’s not possible to remove them with surgery. Except for one category, they should have advanced disease. The tumor should have the size of more than 5 mm in diameter and be located in a place that cannot be operated upon.
There is one category of these tumors, medulloblastoma, where the FDA requires that the patients would receive prior standard treatment and fail before we can accept them. In the rest of these children we can accept them without failure of prior treatment.
You may also e-mail Mary Jo Siegel, the lady who runs the web site. Mary is also a cancer survivor using Antineoplastons.
maryjo@siegel.net
Let us talk a little about some of your most successful stories using Antineoplastons with children. Probably the most remarkable case is that of Tori Moreno . In August 1998 Tori was diagnosed with a stage 4 brainstem glioma that was inoperable. Her parents were told she would die in a few days or at the most, a few weeks. When did you start treating her?
Tori had Stage 4 brain stem glioma. The tumor was too risky for surgery. She was diagnosed shortly after her birth. The tumor was very large, about 3 inches in the largest diameter and located in the brain stem. Her parents consulted the best centers in the country and they were told there was nothing to be done. So finally she was brought to us, when she was about 3 ½ months old. This was in October 5 years ago. She was in such condition that we were afraid that she might die at any time. Fortunately she responded, and about 5 months later we determined that she obtained a complete response, which means complete disappearance of active tumor by
MRI criteria. She is a perfectly healthy child and tumor free. She still takes small dosages of capsules of Antineoplastons, but we will discontinue this shortly.
Tori Moreno 9.28.98. Temporarily enlarged due to taking Decadron.
Tori’s parents were told there was nothing that could be done for her and she would be dead in a few weeks.
Tori is alive and well today thanks to Antineoplastons. See photo below.
At the end of this interview, there is a short interview with Kim Moreno, Tori’s mother.
Kim Moreno has set-up a Yahoo e-mail account to answer peoples cancer related questions.
kimmoreno5@yahoo.com
And today she is over 5 years old?
Yes, she’s 5 years old and living a pretty much normal life.
Tori 22.10.02. A perfectly healthy child. Orthodox treatment consists of high does of radiation therapy and possibly toxic chemotherapy as well. Most of the children are dead in a few years. The ones that survive suffer from permanent retardation, along with other serious side effects from the radiation.
Please do not forget about the interview with Kim Moreno, Tori’s mother, at the end of this interview.
But mainstream medicine has been trying to kill the cancer cell using chemotherapy and radiation, is that correct?
That’s right, yes.
Chemotherapy and radiation cannot differentiate between healthy and cancerous cells?
They can differentiate to some point, but basically, this difference is very small, so ultimately, the normal cells will be killed.
Is that why they have such a terrible effect on the immune system?
That’s right, not only the immune system, but also many other systems in the body. Practically, the treatment is destroying healthy parts of the body.
Chemotherapy and radiation also cause cancer, don’t they?
Yes. For instance right now we see a lot of patients who in childhood were successfully treated for leukemia or for Hodgkin’s disease. Then they develop cancer that is practically incurable, like lung cancer, breast cancers; I even encountered a patient in my practice that developed three different types of cancers, and was only 28 years of age. First she was treated for Hodgkin’s Disease, then she developed bone cancer in the places which were radiated for Hodgkin’s Disease, and then she developed breast cancer after that; it’s really horrible. So there is increased incidence of secondary cancers in patients who were treated previously with chemotherapy and radiation.
Shontelle Huron. In remission for several years after using Antineoplastons.
You may also e-mail Mary Jo Siegel, the lady who runs the web site. Mary is also a cancer survivor using Antineoplastons. maryjo@siegel.net
Ric and Paula Schiff write about the torture their daughter Crystin had to endure during chemotherapy/radiation treatment.
Crystin was diagnosed with perhaps the most malignant tumor known, which is a rhabdoid tumor of the brain. Of course, historically, there was no case of such a tumor ever having a long response to chemotherapy or radiation therapy. She received extremely heavy does of radiation therapy and chemotherapy, because nobody expected that she would live longer than a year or so. So unfortunately she was terribly damaged with this. She responded very well to Antineoplastons. We put her in complete response. But unfortunately she died from pneumonia. Her immune system was wiped out, so when she aspirated some food, she died from it. The autopsy revealed that she didn’t have any sign of malignancy.
But there are also likely permanent severe health concerns related to taking chemotherapy and radiation.
In young children there is permanent damage to the brain. Unfortunately some oncologists who are dealing with such cases are really cruel to the parents, because they are saying, “well, your child will survive, but you are going to have a jolly idiot for the rest of your life.”
Is it true that if parents refuse chemotherapy/radiation treatment for their children the hospital, via the courts, could have the child removed from the parents care and forced to take chemotherapy/radiation treatment?
Yes, unfortunately in some States, the law may require taking children away from the custody of the parents to send them to such treatments.
Jared Wadman. In remission for several years after using Antineoplastons.
You may also e-mail Mary Jo Siegel, the lady who runs the web site. Mary is also a cancer survivor using Antineoplastons.
maryjo@siegel.net
Isn’t this what happened to Donna and Jim Navarro when they chose your treatment over orthodox treatments?
That is correct. Thomas Navarro was diagnosed with medulloblastoma. He was operated on and the tumor was removed. Then he was scheduled for radiation therapy. Since he was only 4 years old, the parents knew that he’d be damaged by radiation therapy. Nobody at his age survives this type of tumor anyway after radiation therapy. So that’s why they decided to come to our clinic. Unfortunately I could not treat him because FDA requires failure of radiation therapy for such patients.
And tragically he died in November 2001.
What happened was, the parents decided not to take any treatment. We asked the FDA several times to allow administration of Antineoplastons, because we have already had successful treatments for some other children without any prior radiation. Then ultimately he developed numerous tumors in May the following year. Then we suggested to the parents of Thomas, that if they are not going to take our treatment, they should go for at least chemotherapy. They went for chemotherapy to one of the best centers in the country, to Beth Israel Hospital in New York. The chemotherapy was successful, but he almost died from it. It severely affected his bone marrow. I remember a phone call from Thomas’s father telling me that the doctors are thinking that they won’t do anything else for him and that Thomas will die within a week because of severe suppression of bone marrow.
But I encouraged his father to do whatever is possible because such patients may turn around. Fortunately he turned around, but about a month or two later he developed 15 tumors in the brain and the spinal cord. Then, when he was close to death, when nothing was available for him, the FDA called us and told us now we can treat Thomas. When we treated Thomas he survived 6 months, and the tumors had substantially decreased, but ultimately he died from pneumonia.
Is it accurate to say that the initial orthodox treatment for brain cancer is surgery to remove the tumor?
If the tumor is located in the proper part of the brain. For some locations it is out of the question. But, you are right, that is the first step.
Does surgery alone ever cure a patient with brain cancer?
Well, some cases, with benign brain tumors, when the tumor can be completely dissected, yes, it’s possible. But in most cases it’s not possible.
How much of a risk does surgery present regarding spreading the cancer more quickly and other complications?
Well, not so much regarding spreading the cancer more quickly in the case of brain tumors. Such a spread may happen only with a small percentage of brain tumors that have the highest aggressiveness. But for most of the patients the tumor is not going to spread just because of surgery. Certainly surgery may damage the brain and patients may even die during the surgery. It’s not the ideal thing to do of course because you are removing the tumor and you are removing a healthy part of the brain at the same time. The patient may be permanently damaged by such procedures.
Would you warn against rushing into surgery in light of how effective your treatment is? Would you most times recommend trying your treatment first?
We really would like to know what we are dealing with. This means that we would like to have at least a biopsy; if by chance it’s not going to create sufficient risk for the patient. If the tumor was located in such a place in the brain where surgery is possible, then certainly we could try to remove the tumor. But I think it would be best if we can treat the patient with brain intact and get rid of the tumor completely, because then we risk the least damage possible.
Now I will turn my attention to your legal battles with the FDA. They began in 1983 when they sued you in civil court, is this correct?
In 1983, that was the first court battle with the FDA. The FDA sued us. It took about 6 weeks in court and again, we won.
Then there was an enormous raid by the FDA at your offices on July 17, 1985. What was the reason for this raid?
We were never given a reason. I think there was a concentrated action against a few alternative medicine centers because at the same time there were similar actions in the Bahamas and in some other places.
In the four court cases the FDA has brought against you, have any of your patients testified against you?
Well, on their own will, nobody testified against us. But the FDA encouraged some of our patients, and threatened them in various ways. They forced them to come to the witness stand. But really, once they were on the witness stand they behaved more like our witnesses, not FDA witnesses.
According to Daniel Haley, after the FDA lost its last court case against you in 1997, Congressman Richard Burr said it was “one of the worst abuses of the criminal justice system”. Did Burr ever speak to you about it?
Yes, we talk with Congressman Burr. I believe he is right, because certainly there was no reason for such massive action on the part of the FDA. They knew that the treatment works; that the treatment helps patients, that the patients will die if they win, so they should not do it. All of this was with the taxpayer’s money.
So the FDA has wasted many millions of taxpayer dollars trying to convict you on false charges of transporting Antineoplastons across State lines. What was the motivation for this vendetta?
Well, it’s hard to tell, because it was never properly investigated; why they did it. But, we have some leads. For instance, on one side you have a large pharmaceutical company, which was very interested in getting hold of our patents; this is Elan Pharmaceutical. It happened that I treated successfully a close relative to the CEO of Elan. Elan became very interested in what we have. They came close to signing a final license agreement. But after they learned what we have, they decided to withdraw and then suddenly the FDA and NCI gave their full support to Elan, to do clinical trials with one of the ingredients of Antineoplastons, phenylacetate.
This was a large pharmaceutical company that was trying to appropriate my invention. On the other hand, within the FDA and NCI you have had people who were working closely with this company. For instance Mary Pendergast, who was responsible for the legal action against us, became Vice President of Elan. Also Doctor Michael Friedman, who was initially in charge of NCI cancer research, and who knew that our treatment works, later became commissioner of FDA and he did whatever he could to put us out of business. Not only that, but to simply destroy me.
On the other hand, suddenly the government decided to file for the patents, which claimed the same thing that our patents did. Never in the history of the United States do you have the issuance of two patents for the same invention. It was really a breach of patent procedure. The patent office allowed them to patent something I invented, and which I patented. And dishonest scientist Dr. Dvorit Samid, who initially worked for us, was receiving funds from us and finally went for the higher bidder (Elan).
So you have a lot of leads, which indicate that there was something between the government, dishonest scientists like Dvorit Samid and the large pharmaceutical company, Elan. And it was in best interests for them to get rid of me, destroy me, so they could appropriate my discoveries and benefit from that.
When did you initially apply for your Investigational New Drug (IND)?
We applied in May 1983.
When did you receive it?
Well, it took an extremely long time. Ultimately most of our clinical trials began in 1996, a long time after that. FDA did not allow us to proceed with clinical trials for an extremely long time. Please click here to read the
conclusion of this interview
E-mail this sites address to someone and help spread the word
You may also e-mail Mary Jo Siegel, the lady who runs the web site. Mary is also a cancer survivor using Antineoplastons.
maryjo@siegel.net
It is important for everyone to understand the economics of the drug industry. I have heard that the cost today for bringing a drug to market is upwards of 500 million and takes about 12 years, is that true?
Yes, you’re right.
The drug company is then given a 17-year patent so that it can make a profit on the drug. It is little wonder the drug companies fight against natural treatments such as Laetrile, because they are unable to patent them and they pose a serious threat to their profit margins. But you are able to patent your treatment, so why was there no interest in it from the drug companies?
Basically you have 17 years from the time when you have approval of the patent and this is independent from FDA’s approval process. You file the patent, once you make a discovery, and then you go through FDA procedure. You spend say 12 years or 15 years for the approval process, then you have only 2 years license from the FDA, because license is going to expire in another 2 years. Certainly the pharmaceutical companies are spending a lot of money in this process.
In our case I decided to develop this on my own, to generate money from my private practice and use the money to support the research of Antineoplastons. Again we were approached by many different pharmaceutical companies, which were interested in working with us. Certainly after the bad experience (with Elan) we are very cautious with whom to deal. On the other hand pharmaceutical companies were afraid of action from the FDA.
The NCI put off testing Antineoplastons using the fact that it failed their standard P388 leukemia mouse test, is that correct?
Yes
What is the P388 leukemia mouse test and why did Antineoplastons fail it?
Well we had informed the NCI that this was a bad type of test for antineoplastons. Antineoplastons seems to be specific for species. Different animals have different antineoplastons; mice have a different composition of antineoplastons than humans. Practically, human antineoplastons may work well in humans, but they may not have much activity in mice. We knew this, even before the NCI began testing. On the other hand we didn’t have good results at all in the acute form of leukemia and we didn’t even accept such patients. It was known that if they only do this type of test, it was not going to work. They still tested and used this to say that Antineoplastons don’t work against cancer. Certainly the fact that something works or doesn’t work against mice leukemia is irrelevant.
I’d like the reader to bear with me in the next few questions, as the point will become clear. One of the chemicals you identified in the peptides was phenylacetate. But it was far inferior to the others and you chose not to patent it, is that correct?
This is not a peptide, this is a metabolite of our antineoplastons and it’s an organic acid. So this is a final metabolite of antineoplastons. It has some anti-cancer activity, but the weakest of all antineoplastons. We knew about it and that’s why after some preliminary experience in the treatment of phenylacetate back in 1980, we decided that it’s not worth pursuing this and then we used antineoplastons that have higher activity.
But didn’t you later find out that the NCI actually holds the patent for phenylacetate?
You’re right. NCI is the owner of the patent, Dr. Samid is the author but Elan has the license to use these patents. All of these three work together.
Why did the NCI patent something that was far inferior to your other Antineoplastons?
Because they knew that this was the only chance that they can get hold of something which has to do with antineoplastons.
The NCI ran clinical trials on phenylacetate in 1992 and found it to be worthless, is that correct?
Well, the clinical trials began in 1992 but it took a few years to have the results. It shows some effectiveness in brain tumors and in prostate cancer. But of course it was far away from the results that we can get with antineoplastons.
When did the NCI eventually start clinical trials of Antineoplastons?
In 1994.
I assume you gave the doctors running the trials all the information about correct dosages, is that true?
Yes, well, basically they used dosages that were 50 times lower than what we feel are effective dosages. We have some patient’s relatives who were present when the treatment was administered. Formulations of antineoplastons were badly diluted. This means that the patient was receiving very little antineoplastons and some of these patients were removed from the treatment after a short period of time because they were overloaded with fluid. Well normally we see fluid overload in perhaps less than 2% of our patients. So it makes sense that perhaps the formulations of antineoplastons were diluted and when the Mayo Clinic (1999) determined the concentration of antineoplastons in blood, we realize that it was something like 50 times lower than what it should be.
Do you think the NCI purposely sabotaged your trials?
I have no doubt about it. They sabotaged the trial; they accepted patients who were too advanced. Their main effort was to give a low dose of the medicine for a short period of time and to stop treatment just for some minor problem, like if a patient developed a skin rash. They were trying to give the treatment only for a very short period of time, like for instance a couple of weeks or a month. And then of course the patient was dying after that. It was completely unethical, it was horrible. As you probably heard recently, the pharmacist who was diluting an anti-cancer drug, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. I think the same should happen to these guys who really were trying to use this for their political manipulations.
Jessica Kerfoot. In remission for several years after using Antineoplastons.
You may also e-mail Mary Jo Siegel, the lady who runs the web site. Mary is also a cancer survivor using Antineoplastons.
maryjo@siegel.net
How much influence do the pharmaceutical companies wield in medicine in the US?
Extreme influence. Most of the oncologists, I’m talking about reputable oncologists, they work for pharmaceutical companies, they work in clinical trials, they receive various type of incentives from pharmaceutical companies. And basically these doctors are approving medicine, FDA may approve the medicine, but finally this advisory board may advise FDA to go ahead with this or do not approve that medicine. So really the doctors who are deciding if the medicine should be approved or not, practically all of them have some type of relation with large pharmaceutical companies.
Is there a conspiracy to suppress other treatments or is it just a case of avaricious businesses, the pharmaceutical and hospital industry’s, doing everything in their power to protect their bottom line?
Well certainly they have a lot of power. When I filed my application for IND, the standard FDA policy was such that they would never approve a new drug for an individual owner, only for the large pharmaceutical companies. And that’s why I believe we waited for such a long time to receive the go-ahead for our clinical trial. So certainly there were obstruction tactics. Whether this is a conspiracy or not is hard for me to tell. As you can see, the leads which I presented, like for instance a researcher who worked for me initially and then decided to go to the higher bidder, which was a pharmaceutical company; then the relationship between the pharmaceutical company and governmental agencies. All of this indicates that there is some type of conspiracy. I think a Congressional committee should study this.
Turning our attention to the doctor/oncology profession. When reading Thomas Elias’s excellent book, “The Burzynski Breakthrough”, I was struck by how many times patients said that their oncologists were aggressively opposed to them taking your treatment.
Even after a patient’s success with your treatment, very few doctors give you the credit. Is this due to jealousy, arrogance, plain old denial or something else?
Probably a lot of arrogance. We have some prominent specialists, the best specialists in the world who really acknowledge our results and would like to work with us. On the other hand you have some doctors who hate to see a patient with success on our treatment. The fact that the patient is coming to their office, years after the patient should be dead, is something like a slap in the face. They hate it.
They will do everything they can to lie, to obstruct the information about this patient. We have a lot of evidence that oncologists were lying about the patient’s condition. For instance the patient recovered completely from highly malignant cancer and the oncologist was telling us the patient died from cancer. So certainly, we have a lot of evidence about some of these doctors who are dishonest, who are liars, who cheat. But on the other hand you can’t really put the same label on the entire profession. There are many other doctors who are honest and who like to know about what we have. Of course our clinic has board certified oncologists who are taking care of our patients.
I found an interesting quote by David Stewart, a philanthropist who helped fund Gaston Naessens cancer research in the 70’s. He says,
“I can say categorically that most scientific researchers with whom I have had to deal are highly opinionated, arrogant, condescending, and have built-in, insurmountable prejudices.”
Would you agree with these sentiments? What have your experiences been?
Well certainly, I think he’s right; unfortunately that’s the truth.
We spoke about Crystin Schiff briefly before. This is a particularly despicable story, because when Ric Schiff asked Dr. Michael Prados, then head of neuro-oncology at University of California at San Francisco Medical Center (UCSF), if he knew of any other treatment besides chemotherapy/radiation for Crystin’s brain tumor, Prados replied in the negative. But a few years before, he had sent you 14 letters documenting the effectiveness of Antineoplastons on Jeff Keller, another patient with brain cancer. Is this story true?
Yes, it’s true; of course Jeff Keller had an extremely malignant brain tumor. He had a high-grade glioma of the brain; he failed radiation therapy and additional treatments. He responded extremely well to our treatment. He was one of the patients whose case was presented to the NCI. So there was no doubt about his response. Dr. Prados knew about it. If he was dealing with a hopeless tumor like Crystin Schiff, why didn’t he call us?
Ryan and mother Cindy. Ryan is in remission for several years after using Antineoplastons.
You may also e-mail Mary Jo Siegel, the lady who runs the web site. Mary is also a cancer survivor using Antineoplastons.
maryjo@siegel.net
Do you know why Prados did not tell them about Keller’s success with your treatment?
It’s hard for me to tell. It happens that Dr. Prados and Dr, Friedman, who became the boss of the FDA, came from the same medical school. So they work closely together, and perhaps there is something to do with the general action against us. It would be inconvenient for Dr. Prados to say that the treatment works if FDA was trying to get rid of us and when his friend was Commissioner of the FDA at that time. Perhaps that’s the connection….
One of your greatest critics is Saul Green (Ph.D. Biochemistry), a retired biochemist from Memorial Sloan Kettering. In 1992 the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), published Green’s article, “Antineoplastons: An Unproved Cancer Therapy.” What were his conclusions about Antineoplastons?
Well, Green is not a medical doctor, he’s a retired biochemist; he never reviewed our results. He got hold of some of our patents and that’s what he based his opinion on.
He was hired by another insurance company (Aetna) that was in litigation with us. He’s like a hired assassin. Not telling the truth. So really to argue with him is good for nothing. Even if something were completely clear he would negate it. He is simply a guy who was hired by our adversaries. He would do whatever they paid him to do.
Paul Leverett was diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme grade 4 brain stem tumor in May 1999. The prognosis was that he would probably be dead before the end of 1999. Orthodox medicine gave him no hope of survival.
Paul was given the maximum amount of radiation he was capable of receiving. It slowed the tumors growth slightly, but this did not alter Paul’s prospects for survival at all.
After completing some research on the Internet Paul learned about Dr. Burzynski’s Antineoplastons. Paul began taking Antineoplastons intravenously, administered by his wife, in September 1999. After 6 weeks Paul’s tumor had grown by only 2 %, Glioblastoma’s normally double in size every 2 weeks.
A PET scan in December 2000 confirmed that Paul was in complete remission. He stayed on Antineoplastons until August 2001 to ensure the tumor would not reoccur. There is just under 20% tumor necrosis remaining in his brain stem, which is probably scar tissue.
Paul’s oncologist (at MD Anderson, Houston) initially wanted to show his scan’s to his hospitals (MD Anderson) tumor review board. But then, for whaever reason, he refused further contact with Paul and did not go ahead with it.
The photo was taken with his wife Jennie. Paul had a web site created in order to inform people about his cancer experiences. http://www.dontevergiveup.com
E-mail: pjleverett@ev1.net
Did Green ask to look at your patients’ files or even talk to any of your patients themselves?
No.
You responded with an article with 137 references, did JAMA publish even part of it?
JAMA refused to publish the article. They decided that they would publish a short letter to the editors. And obviously this is another dirty thing, because letters to the editors are not in the reference books. If you look in the computer and try to find letters to the editor from JAMA, you’ll never find it. So people who are interested will always find Green’s article, but they will never find our reply to Green’s article, unless they go to the library. Then they can look in the JAMA volume in which the letter was published, and then they will find it. So many doctors were asking me why I did not respond to Saul Green’s article because they never found my letter to the editors.
Are they obligated to publish your rebuttal?
Certainly they are, because they put Green’s article in JAMA in the first place, they accepted it without any peer review and then they did not allow me to honestly respond to it. I should be allowed to publish my response to the article in JAMA.
At the time of the publication Green was working as a consultant to Grace Powers Monaco, Esq., a Washington attorney who was assisting Aetna insurance agency in its lawsuit against you. What was the Aetna lawsuit about?
One of our patients sued Aetna because Aetna refused to pay for my treatment. Then Aetna got involved and Aetna sued us. Aetna really became involved in what you can call racketeering tactics because they contacted practically every insurance company in the US. They smeared us, they advised insurance companies to not pay for our services. So based on all of this, our lawyer decided to file a racketeering suit against Aetna. This was a 190 million dollar lawsuit against Aetna. So certainly Aetna was trying to discredit us by using people like Saul Green. And they hired him to work on their behalf.
So there was an obvious conflict of interest for Green because he worked for Monaco who was assisting Aetna. Was this information published in the JAMA article?
No.
Green also questions the fact that you have a Ph.D.. At the American Association for Clinical Chemistry Symposium, July 1997, Atlanta, GA., he says in part
“Burzynski’s claim to a Ph.D. is questionable. Letters from the Ministry of Health,
Warsaw, Poland, and from faculty at the Medical Academy at Lublin, Poland, say,
respectively:
1. At the time Burzynski was in school, medical schools did not give a Ph.D.
2. Burzynski received the D.Msc. in 1968 after completing a one-year laboratory
project and passing an exam. (3) Burzynski did no independent research while in medical school.”
He cites the people below as giving him some of this information.
1. Nizanskowski, R. ,Personal communication. Jan 15, 1992.
3. Bielinski, S., Personal communication, Nov. 22, 1987
First of all, do you have a Ph.D.?
Well, the program in Poland is somewhat different than the US. What I have is equivalent to a US Ph.D. When a medical doctor in the US graduates from medical school, he receives a medical doctor diploma. In Poland it’s a similar diploma, but it’s called a physician diploma, which is equal to medical doctor. And after that, if you would like to obtain a Ph.D., you have to do independent research, both in the US and in Poland. So you have to work on an independent project, you have to write a doctorate thesis and, in addition, to that in Poland, you have to take exams in medicine, in philosophy and also you have to take exams in the subjects on which you have written your thesis, in my case this was biochemistry.
As you can see from the letter from the President of the medical school from which I graduated, this is a Ph.D..
Saul Green got information from the guys who were key communist figures in my medical school. The second secretary of the communist party in my school, hated my guts, because I didn’t want to be a communist. So, somehow, Green got hold of “reputable” communist sources (laugh) to give him that information. It is exactly the President of the medical school who certified that I have a Ph.D..
So you are saying that theses people he received his personal communication from, Nizanskowski R, and Bielinski S, are both Communists, is that correct, or they were?
Not only communists, but Bielinski was one of the key players in the communist party in my medical school. So certainly he was extremely active as a communist. And, you know that communists, they usually don’t tell the truth.
So there is absolutely no question about it, you have a Ph.D. and Green’s doubts are totally without foundation. Has he ever acknowledged publicly the fact that you have a Ph.D.?
He’s never got in touch with me regarding this.
There are some mainstream oncologists who have stated publicly that your treatment works such as Dr. Robert Burdick, oncologist and professor at the University of Washington Medical School.
He is one of the top experts in this field.
Dr. Burzynski, there are undoubtedly many people alive today solely because of your treatments, but there could be many hundreds or thousands more alive if the public was given free access to your treatment. Do you see this ever happening?
I see this happening within a few years. We already have 8 clinical trials that prove efficacy of the treatment. However, we still need to treat more patients, because in each of our clinical trials it is required that we treat 40 patients. If we are talking about 78 clinical trials, then the number of patients that need to be treated is about 3,000. We are moving forward, probably in another 2 to 3 years we will have final approval.
A group shot of some of Dr. Burzynski’s patients. Please see the Burzynski Patients web site for more information,
http:// http://www.burzynskipatientgroup.org
You may also e-mail Mary Jo Siegel, the lady who runs the web site. Mary is also a cancer survivor using Antineoplastons.
maryjo@siegel.net
You have fought the government on behalf of your patients’ rights for over 25 years. There must have been a few times when you considered calling it quits. What has sustained you over the years and kept you fighting?
Well you see, basically the principle. Certainly I could practice just regular medicine and not
spend millions of dollars for the research, which I did. And I could go to some other country and practice. But I feel that this is my obligation because what I am doing is right. I’m saving peoples lives. So why should I give in to some mediocre characters, to liars, to people who really misrepresent what I do. And if I fail, then America will fail also. Because really America is the bastion of Democracy in the world. If America is rotten, then the whole world will go down to hell. So if something is rotten in the Patent office, in the NCI and FDA, it is the duty of the citizen to show that this is rotten and should be corrected.
There are a number of good people who can make it work, so why should bad people erode and destroy the entire system. I felt that this was my obligation; I felt that I was right and even if I had to go to prison, I would fight for it, because this is the right thing to do. Otherwise I could not look at myself in the mirror. I would despise myself.
Do you think we will we ever have medical freedom of choice in the US, where we can choose whatever treatment we want for cancer?
I am not sure if this will ever happen. But at least I am hoping that the movement, which we pioneered, like this alternative medicine movement, will bring a lot of good to the American people. After all, now you have official recognition of alternative treatment, more or less, and this is because of our fight. If we wouldn’t fight at that time, then perhaps it would not happen, but maybe it would happen another ten years from now.
Standard medical practices and the observations of physicians who are outside the medical establishment are extremely important, because anybody can make a discovery and improve the health of people. This I think is an important movement, but whether the people of America will ever have a chance to select whatever treatment they want, is another story.
Finally Dr. Burzynski, a hearty thanks to you for keeping your treatment available to cancer patients, for keeping your oath as a doctor and putting the patient ahead of financial gain, and of course, for saving lives. Please keep up the great work. Thank you for giving me the time to conduct this interview and inform people about your work and treatment.
Thank you.
End of interview.
Gavin.
Please be aware. Orthodox medicine often states that people who have recovered from cancer by unapproved methods did so due to a “spontaneous remission”. This means that the cancer just disappears for no apparent reason. First of all, I do not know of any documented cases of spontaneous remissions in brain cancer. In other serious cancers it is so rare as to be unworthy of discussion.
But here is the most crucial point. A true spontaneous remission is when the cancer goes away without any treatment, either approved or unapproved. It’s absurd to suggest that someone who received large amounts of Antineoplastons, and is then cancer free, had a spontaneous remission. If someone has surgery to remove a tumor and they are cancer free for years, we know it was because of the surgery.
Also remember that in many cases cancer patients turn to Antineoplastons (and other so-called alternatives) after chemotherapy and/or radiation have failed. If the patient goes into remission, oncologists often state that it was a delayed response to their treatment. This is a very convenient situation for oncologists. When their treatments fail, they still claim the credit for the patient’s recovery, even after the patient has been on Antineoplastons (or other treatments) for months/years.
Read about Dr. Burzynski’s treatment from the most important sources, the patients who had cancer and who are alive today because of Antineoplastons. The Burzynski Patients Web Site
http:// http://www.burzynskipatientgroup.org
Kim also has an e-mail account she specifically set-up for people to contact her about her experiences with Dr. Burzynski, oncologists, Antineoplastons and cancer treatments in general. Any e-mail unrelated to these subjects will be deleted.
kimmoreno5@yahoo.com
While searching the Internet for links related to Koch’s glyoxylide, I found a recent article on Dr. Mercola’s web site related to a drug called Methylglyoxal (the lead ingredient, which is a metabolite in our body) that has been tested in India for over ten years. Please see, http://www.mercola.com/2001/jun/13/methylglyoxal.htm
Thank you for taking the time to inform people about your family’s experiences while your daughter Tori was taking Antineoplastons.
Tori was first diagnosed with a Stage 4 brain stem glioma in August 1998, is that correct?
Yes
What was the prognosis?
The doctor’s basically told us to take her home and prepare for her to die.
Were there any records of anyone surviving with this type of cancer, using orthodox treatments?
None that they could provide us with.
How many cancer centers did you visit?
We originally were at Miller’s Children at Long Beach Memorial and then went to City of Hope. We also sent her MRI’s to Dr. Fred Epstein in New York to be looked at.
And they all said the same thing, Tori’s brain cancer was fatal and nothing could be done? How long was she expected to live?
Yes, they all said there was nothing we could do. She was given 2-6 weeks to live.
How did you find out about Dr. Burzynski and Antineoplastons?
On the Internet on a brain tumor support group. We read a letter from a father whose daughter was on the treatment.
Did you ask your doctors about Burzynski? Had they heard of him or researched his treatment?
Yes, we asked all of them about it. Most frowned at the idea, the oncologist refused to see her if we took her to see Dr. Burzynski. The only one who told us that he thought Dr. B might have a good chance with helping us was Dr. Fred Epstein.
When did you first visit him?
In October 1998
Did he tell you he could cure Tori?
No. He said he thought Antineoplastons would help her, but he wasn’t sure he had enough time. He was very upfront and honest with the statistics he had with her type of cancer but offered no promises.
How much Antineoplastons was Tori taking?
I can’t even remember what dose she ended up on when she was taking it intravenously.
What were the side effects? In the photos you sent me, Tori is greatly enlarged, I assume due to fluid retention. Is that what it was? How was that alleviated? Were there any other side effects due to the Antineoplastons?
We always had to monitor her potassium and sodium. So, she had to drink a lot of water and therefore we went through a lot of diapers. Those were the worst of the side effects. In the picture, she was so large due to being on Decadron, which we were able to wean her off of in January 1999.
Were you surprised when Tori started responding?
Yes, I have to say I was. It is hard to believe something great is going to come out of something so painful. I guess she taught me not to lose faith in life.
How soon was it before Tori’s brain tumor started reducing in size?
Immediately. It had shrunk in size by 20% after the very first MRI, which I believe was in 6-8 weeks…it’s been a long time and a lot of MRI’s later.
For how long did Tori continue to take Antineoplastons intravenously? Did you administer this yourself at home?
She took them through IV for 2 years and yes; we did this all at home.
Does your insurance company pay for the treatment? Did they try to avoid paying for it?
No, they do not pay for the treatment.
I understand Tori is 5 today. Is she still taking Antineoplastons? Has the tumor completely gone?
Yes, she just turned five in June. She still takes Antineoplastons orally…. she takes 40 capsules a day. Her tumor has decreased in size by 86% and they believe what is left may be scar tissue.
Has Tori suffered any permanent side-side effects from Antineoplastons?
Not one. In fact, it decreased her symptoms dramatically and never caused her any harm.
So Tori is cancer free and side effect free today?
Absolutely….
This is an incredible story Kim. Your child was diagnosed with a fatal brain cancer and the best oncologists and surgeons in America told you it was hopeless. Yet you found a cure for your child, without the billions, and so-called cancer specialists, that the NCI has at its disposal. Have any oncologists or doctors asked you about Dr. Burzynski’s treatment?
They tend to ask very quietly, but never really respond to what I have to tell them. There is curiosity there, just no one is really willing to step up to the plate and believe that the antineoplastons had something to do with her survival.
What do they say now that Tori is alive and well?
The neurologists told us that sometimes it happens and they called it “spontaneous remission”. Again, I asked them to provide some statistics and there were none to be seen.
That is of course the height of absurdity. To my knowledge, there has never been a documented case of any brain cancer going into spontaneous remission. Have you ever mentioned that to them?
Yes, again with no intelligent response.
So they are quite content to administer the same cancer causing, toxic treatments, when they know about your daughter’s success with Antineoplastons?
Absolutely. It amazes me that some of them can sleep at night.
Has your opinion about the medical profession, specifically cancer specialists, changed since Tori’s recovery? If it has, in what manner?
Yes, it has changed a lot. I guess the biggest change would be that I no longer sit back and believe anything a doctor tells m e and that we have to take our healthcare into our hands by searching for legitimate options. I believe we have the right to choose.
What do you think about the fact that some 3,000 children in the US (untold thousands worldwide) this year will be diagnosed with some form of brain cancer, and their families will have to face the same horror you did, the horror of losing a child. But virtually all of them will not be told about Antineoplastons, the treatment that cured Tori?
It really makes me sick to my stomach. That is why I want to talk to anyone who wants to listen about Tori’s Story
Finally, I commend you and your husband for finding a way to cure your daughter, when all the “experts” said it was hopeless. You gave her life when she was born, and then you saved her life by finding Antineoplastons.
I thank you once again Kim for answering my questions and sending me the photos of Tori. Give my best to your family.
Gavin Phillips opinion
Dr. Burzynski is a great rarity these days. He is a courageous man who risked everything battling the FDA for over 15 years so as to allow cancer patients access to his treatment. A doctor who puts his patients well being before financial gains. But how many people diagnosed with cancer this year will ever find out about Antineoplastons? A tiny percentage, because very few mainstream oncologists will inform their patients about a treatment that has yet to be approved. And why is that? The NCI and ACS have supposedly been searching for decades for any and all treatments that are effective against cancer. For over 15 years Dr. Burzynski’s treatment has shown that it is effective. Many cancer patients, including some very young children with supposedly hopeless brain cancers, are alive today because of Antineoplastons.
Here we come to the most crucial questions of all. Why did the FDA try their utmost to ruin Dr. Burzynski by involving him in 4 court cases? Why did the NCI make certain Burzynski’s clinical trials failed by diluting his treatment and enrolling patients who were the least likely to respond to Antineoplastons? If this was a one-time only event, we could dismiss it as an aberration; on overzealous government agencies. But the persecution of Dr. Burzynski is not an aberration, but the norm. There have been many well-documented cases in the last 70 some years of doctors/healers who discovered an effective cancer treatment, only to find the full force of the cancer agencies trying to destroy them and their discoveries. I have learned about several during my research. Dr. William Koch/Glyoxylide, Dr. Andrew Ivy/Krebiozen, Harry Hoxsey method/herbs, Royal Rife/radio waves, Ernst Krebs/ Laetrile/Amygdalin, Gaston Naessens/714 X, Dr. Lawrence Burton/Immuno-Augmentative Therapy, Dr. Max Gerson method/diet.
What, if anything, does Dr. Burzynski’s Antineoplastons have in common with these other treatments? Most of them are natural; all of them are inexpensive to produce, especially when compared to the enormous costs of conventional treatments. If cheap cancer treatments with virtually no side effects were allowed to freely compete with the cancer causing offerings of the pharmaceutical companies, the outcome is obvious. The pharmaceutical companies, and the hospitals that administer their drugs, will lose tens of billions in profits. And this I believe is the reason Dr. Burzynski, and the people who have gone before him, have been publicly vilified as “quacks” and their treatments discredited. The fact is that the pharmaceutical companies control American medicine, and they are only interested in treatments from which they can derive a profit.
Every cancer patient in America, and the world, should have free access to Antineoplastons. It is intolerable, not to mention totally un-American, to give a profit obsessed industry a monopoly over Americans healthcare. Nobody should have the right to force toxic chemicals down our family’s throat, especially when Dr. Burzynski’s treatment has proven effective (for some cancers) and does not have appalling side effects.
One point, in which I disagree with Burzynski about, is the possibility of medical freedom of choice happening in America. It would happen in a year or two if enough Americans demanded it. You can help make that a reality. Please forward this interview to as many people as you know, as well as media outlets. Around ten thousand Americans die every week from cancer; we simply must have medical freedom of choice. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Gavin Phillips. http://www.cancerinform.org
E-mail this sites address to someone and help spread the word
====================================== Pete talks with Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski
—————————————————————— December 2011 (1:02:30)
======================================
How did you kind of get into this, into this field in the 1st place ?
Uh well, it was a coincidence, ’cause obviously I made discovery of new chemicals, peptides which is in blood, and I noticed that they were deficient in patients with cancer, and there was a curiosity, why there was such deficiency, and I was interested what these peptides that I discovered, are doing in the body
So the connection with cancer was quite obvious
He, healthy people have abundance of these chemicals in blood Cancer patients have varied to none
So could be that cancer is another deficiency disease
So
So when you found this out
Yes. Mhmm ?
how did you feel ?
I mean, did you not just want to shout from the rooftops, and could you believe that you’d actually discovered something ?
Not yet
Of course I was skeptical, and I found something that was interesting, but obviously, it was just the very beginning and when I shared this news uh with some other guys, who are obviously much older than me, who, other guys who were professors, who ever, so (laugh) they began to laugh so much they almost died from laughing
Ok ?
That (laughing)
Wow, this guy would like to kill cancer
Forget it
Ok ?
That’s just not going to happen
What are you doing ?
Yes sir (laugh)
Well how did that affect you ?
Well it didn’t affect me too much because I knew that uh the science uh requires uh some successes and uh setbacks and I felt, well I still would like to know, what these peptides can do, and I would like to know what they can do, not only regarding cancer but in various aspects of body function
For instance, the activity of the heart, the activity of the uh uh G.I. tract
Whatever
Ok
I needed to expand this knowledge
Suddenly I found some like 119 new peptide fractions
Nobody ever heard of them
So I wanted to know
What do they do ?
And when I was in Poland I couldn’t have really do any further testing, because I didn’t have such possibility to require different group of people who would do the testing, and simply by working in the biochemistry laboratory I did not have such capacity, and obviously the budget for doing uh research was extremely small
Besides, I was continuously harassed by the communists and they were sending me to, eh, the military, so I couldn’t do much
I still did whatever I could
Then I came to U.S.
Oh so you came to U.S.
What, what year was that ?
It was 1970
I heard you came with not very much money in your pocket
Uh well it was better than where I came first to the U.K., because when I came first to U.K., I came practically with nothing, and uh, when I went to British uh Medical Student Association, they were going to give me 7 pounds for one month stay in U.K. (laughing)
You were supposed to get this money in Poland
Yeah
(laughing) Sorry about that
So ultimately they decided to give me 7 pounds, and obviously at that time it was a lot of money, so with 7 pounds I was able to survive a month
(laughing) Good luck (laughing)
But in U.S., I was allowed by the communist government to $15, which again, was equivalent probably to 7 pounds, whatever (laughing)
So you came here with $15
I smuggled another 10
Yeah
So the proper balance was like
So what
So what did you do when you got here ?
Well, ehhh, when I arrived I was uh, uh, uh, trying to get ahold of my relatives
My uncle that lived in Bronx
Yeah
And uh I officially came to visit him and uh I was expecting him to see me at the airport, and surely enough he came to the airport but uh at the time he was an elderly man
He was close to 80, and eh, he probably went to a different part of Kennedy airport, so he couldn’t find me
So I was stuck in the airport
This was Holiday
This was 4th of uh September, which was a Labor Day, and so I couldn’t get uh uh to his apartment
So finally I spent most of this money for the cab, the taxi rides to his apartment
Some, like $13 worth
You had $2 left
Ye, Yeah
Plus the $10
Sure
Well, so then I stay uh I, I was obviously in the family’s, I couldn’t
Yeah
I, I don’t need to worry about it
So obviously I had a food and lodging, and uh, still I was trying to get hold of some of the people whom I knew were doing the research in the area, whi, which I was interested
Mhmm
which was peptide research, and uh trying to see if I can advance my research
And then I thought, well, if I go back to Poland, I didn’t expect to stay
And in the meantime uh my job at the university in Poland was terminated, and I wondered they needed my position for the woman who was the wife of the 3rd Secretary of the communist party
Finally when I was terminated from my job, uh, there was no need for me to go back, because I would not be able to find job anywhere in Poland, because obviously everything was controlled by communist
So that I decided to stay and to look for the possible, possibility for me to find a job in the U.S.
And wha, what job did you find ?
Um
So you were in New York ?
Yes, I was very active, of course since I was involved in the research
I knew the key people who were involved in peptide research
There were not many of them, but at least there was one good team in New York and Columbia
Um, there was another one at, uh, Cleveland Clinic, and there was another one in Houston, and so, uh, I check with all of them and, uh, the place in New York was unavailable because they hired, um, somebody, um, about a week before I came
Uh but uh, uh, I was invited to the interview to Houston
I was surprised but uh, prepared for my trip and I arrived to Houston and had interview with a professor at Baylor College of Medicine and he gave me the employment, and so it was relatively simple
And then what were you doing on like a day-to-day basis ?
Uh, well, uh, when I arrived to Houston I uh, obviously received a job
I received the job as “Research Associate,” and um, obviously this was associated with a reasonable salary, but the salary was paid once a month, so I had to think, what do I do for the 1st half of the month, because I came in the middle of the month, and didn’t have any money (laughing: both), but some good people loaned me some money so I, I have enough money to rent the apartment, and finally after I got my pay, I was able to do quite well, and I was able to advance, uh, in peptide research
So were you able to do your own research or
Absolutely. Absolutely
that they wanted you to do ?
Absolutely, and uh, I was quite lucky to join the team of the famous professor Professor George H
er, uh, who was initially professor of Sorbonne in Paris
Then in World War II he emigrated to U.K. and he was professor at Oxford, and so finally he came to U.S., and, uh, he put together the peptide research team
He needed people who know how to do analysis of peptides, so that’s why he hired me
And uh I uh told him that I have my own project, which is peptides, and if you wouldn’t mind that I do some research of mind, and he agreed
So basically this was gentleman agreement that I will spend 50% of my time working for him, and spend 50% time, working in my area
Uh, the equipment and the instruments were the same, so it wasn’t too difficult
And then you, and then when you had something to show then, when. when you had even more of something to show them, how was that received, because you see, I’ve really got something here ?
Ah
I think I’ve got something here
Absolutely, it was received with great curiosity, and, um, and obviously he needed people who could use, the cutting edge, uh, methods for peptide analysis, and that’s what I knew about, but I couldn’t use this for him because I didn’t have funds to do it, but I knew exactly what needs to be done, and on the other hand, uh, this was great surrounding because just across the corridor, another team receive a Nobel Prize for working on peptides
The only problem is, uh, one of these researchers uh was of Polish origin who received Nobel Prize for peptides (laughing)
Yeah
began, uh, fighting with the other one and finally his job was terminated because he punched (laughing)
Punched him ?
the other guy in the nose (laughing)
Yeah
Huh
So, but the good thing about it is that ultimately I inherited uh, their equipment
Yeah
for peptide research, so
Wow. So that must have been like a, like, a, a child in a sweet shop
Absolutely, so was a great coincidence so
So then you were really able to, to, to, to look at it in more detail, and ?
Absolutely, so then of course I was really out of work uh, and the team of Dr. Unger, and also, uh, I was spending a lot of time, uh, progressing in my research, which was very important uh, of course it means long hours uh, ’cause of, uh, 8 hours I would spending working for Dr. Unger and probably not 8 hours until midnight working on my uh, project, but uh, I enjoy it
In the meantime I need to prepare for exams because I wanted to have a license
So I was lucky because uh, within 3 months I was able to pass exams to uh, to naturalize my diploma, and then uh, just, uh, the day, on the eve of my birthday, on January 22nd, President Nixon had a speech in which he promised American people that by 200th anniversary of America, they would have a cancer cure, and no limits would be set on the funding
So then I thought, well, if that’s the case, perhaps I should apply for the grant also, and I did
It was crazy idea because I could barely understand when the people were talking to me (laughing: both)
Well I decided to put together grant application, in to the National Cancer Institute, and include the project on the peptides which I discovered, and I was surprised when this was approved
So then in uh 1971 I get approved as Principle Investigator, to do the project, which included eh, the top people from M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and from Baylor College of Medicine, um, and I was supervising this
I was at that time 28 years old, but I was supervising the guys who were famous, and who were some like 60 years old (laughing)
Wow
and so the money was coming to me from the National Cancer Institute, and I was uh daily uh, running the project, sharing, obviously with the guys from M.D. Anderson, so, and going ahead with the research, so
and of course at that time I was disappointed to have to (work ?) with M.D. Anderson and Baylor, and then I could move independently what I was doing
So at what point were you actually, able to start testing on people
Mmm
It took a long time because
I mean you couldn’t wait, right ?
Yeah it took a long time because obviously um, initially you have to go through a lot of pre-clinical testing
The 1st time it was uh, around the beginning of ’77, yeah
So then we began phase I clinical trials, and this phase I clinical trials were approved by one of the very good hospitals in Houston, which is part of the hospital chain American Medical International, and they interviewed my project and their Institutional Review Board approved it for clinical trials
Well then I did my 1st clinical trials, phase I clinical trial, with a medication that I am not using at this moment because we made further progress of course, at a hospital, and this hospital at that time was called Twelve Oaks Hospital
At this time it’s called River Oak Hospital
Yep
Yes
And then, at what, at what, was there a time where you realized: This is actually working ?
Well, now this was in 1977, and (laughing) surprisingly, uh, uh, perhaps one of the 1st successful case where you can really, document a clear-cut improvement by doing the scan before and after
It shows tremendous decrease of uh, uh, tumors which corresponded to colon cancer which spread to the liver
(This guy was ?)
(laughing)
(?)
(laughing)
And uh, his case was so interesting, that when I sent it for press, the editors decided to put us on the cover, of the journal, the scan
Yeah
They decided to put on the cover of Science, showing the tumor before, and, after the treatment
Eh, so this was uh , obviously
And then what happened ?
Didn’t that m kinda, didn’t word spread like wildfire and people, more and more people want to come and see you ?
Ah, Absolutely, well the 1st excitement occurred, basically what the President Nixon promised ok
That he would deliver
Yeah
cancer cure uh, by ’70, uh 6, 1976, and we did, ok, and we did deliver cancer cure
Yeah
by 1976, 1977 ok, and um, the um, main uh event was the presentation of uh our theory on our research, on perhaps one of the largest uh scientific (congress ? conference ?) in America, involved 19,000 uh, researchers attended
Eh this was annual meeting of the Federation of the Societies of Experimental Medicine and Biology
It happened that at that time it was in Anaheim, California
Uh, I sent uh, uh, the abstract of my presentation, and I was simply, patiently waiting until this would be shown, which was in ’76
In June ’76 right before 4th of July, and uh, I was surprised when they notified me that um, my abstract was selected out of one of few, which was in great interest of the news media, like Associated Press, for instance, and then when I did my presentation, then Associated Press decided to make a release of this, and then you can read about it in newspapers all over the world
In uh, (laughing) distant places like Buenos Aries, receiving CBS newspaper clips from all corners of the world
And what was that like for you ?
I mean, how did that feel, just to see that your name was, all over the world ?
This was the 2nd time, what (?) this happened to me, because 1st time it made such news, by working on brain peptides with Professor Unger; this was around ’72, and suddenly, this wasn’t so much of my
Yeah, but still it was your (interest ?)
involvement, but I was working together with Professor Unger, and we made a great news, by discovery of, certain peptide in the brain, and then it spread all over the world, and then again, uh, uh, CBS
What was that like ?
I mean, how did you feel when you saw ?
Well, uh, it was surprising because uh suddenly we got uh news people coming, and the TVs from various countries, especially from Europe, for instance, from variety of corners, like from Europe, from New Zealand, from Brazil
You name it ok ?
Eh, so there was a great excitement about it, but 1st time that this excitement happened was, is around ’72, uh, really, eh, is typically what happened after such excitement, is the ? iation ?)
ok
Yeah (laugh)
Well, uh, (laughing) the uh, establishment is and this um will attack you and will try to destroy you
Did you know that was going to happen before ?
I knew it would because in Poland, uh, my father’s, uh, gave me the book of um MIT Professor, uh, Thomas Kuhn
(here’s a guy ? try to translate to (?)
(laughing)
(?) yeah
Yeah, probably
(laughing) sure
and then uh, this was uh, the book which was titled eh, Structures of Scientific Revolutions
It happens that this book was translated to Polish language as couple of years after it was printed, in U.S.; which was around uh, I think 19 uh, 64 probably, ok
So then I read the book, and the book shows uh, how, eh, the paradigm shift occurs, ok, and the, it never fails
It always goes through the same stages
1st it’s short period of excitement, and the a long time of harassment and persecution, and then finally the brief period when uh, uh, if you survive, then uh, the other people say
well it’s obvious
We always knew (laughing) that this
Yeah
was going to happen, ok ?
So I knew what was going to happen, uh, but uh, it was hard for me to believe it uh that, uh, in the 20th century, 21st century it could happen, ok, but then uh, when uh, I began going through this, it was like going to some uh, unpleasant disease
You read about it in the books and
Yeah (?)
then uh, you finding one symptom after another, and it affects you
Yeah
and you know that it could be deadly,
(?) survive
Well you could have ended up in prison, right ?
Yeah
(?)
You may die before uh, you be able to do anything
Mhmm
So the advice of the author of the book, was that you have to start early to make some medical discovery, because you probably have years of harassment in front of you, and probably the best chance that uh, you get accepted if you live longer than your opponent, because some guys will never accept you (laughing)
Yeah
until they die
So that’s what happened
Well then, of course, I witnessed what happened with Professor Unger
Yeah, he made the great news, and obviously I contributed to what he had, but he was uh, my boss, and then obviously I did not much, suffer much from retaliation, but he did, ok
So there was retaliation, and uh, they accused him of everything possible, uh, finally causing for him to move from Houston to Memphis, Tennessee, eh, zzz, about year later he died
So unfortunately his research was never brought to the time when it was accepted, ok
It was great research, ok, and if had really to more resource and time I can bring this to be accepted, because this isn’t a completely different field
This is brain function, memory, and peptides working in the brain
But at that time unfortunately the project was killed, which is great loss for humanity, eh, ’cause the discoverer passed away, and the product was gone together with him
It can be still resurrected, and I think it will be
Eh, so then, for me, eh, it meant only advancement, unfortunately, because, uh, when uh, uh, he was stripped from the funds, I received funding from the National Cancer agency funding from the university, and I was able to support him, because he was stripped of his grants and funds
So he was able to move forward with his research, but finally when he moved, I inherited very large laboratories
My laboratory was located in 3 buildings
So the lab space and uh, uh, some prime location, in the medical school
So then I did very well, then, of course, the publicity occurred, and this publicity was centered around me, not around both of us
Yeah
at that time, in ’76, and then again there was about 1/2 a year when there was a great enthusiasm, uh, good wishes, whatever, and after that, a retaliation occurred, ok
So then obviously
Mhmm
And what was, what, what was at the heart of the retaliation ?
Uh, well,
The fact that their people didn’t want this to come to the fore ?
Initially there was some overtures to take away the discovery from me, and uh, for instance, uh, uh, uh, Baylor College congratulated me
I received diploma, so suddenly became superstar, ok (laughing)
Yeah
and then, of course, uh, the wise people, the business people from the university said: “Look, probably we should talk now about patents, we should talk about pharmaceutical companies, we should try to, somehow, put this to motion,” ok, and that’s what we did
So then uh, we talked to some of the best lawyers in the country
Of course, uh, the university uh, are in control of this
There were visits of uh, pharmaceutical companies
I remember one of them came from the research center in U.K., from High uh, Wycombe , and this was so (encouraging that ?) was very interested, what we do
But then uh, the intention was just to take uh, my, uh, in, invention away from me, and obviously
Mhmm
I would have very little to, to, do to promote this, to develop this any further
So I thought about it and I felt that I’m not going to do it
There then uh, I was offered to join the mainstream cancer research at Baylor cancer medicine, and obviously uh, I would receive much better title, of professor
Yeah
and obviously there would be much better equipped laboratory, but again eh, they wanted me to, completely quit private practice of medicine, ’cause at the same time I was practicing medicine, which many researchers were doing
I was working at Baylor College and then I was practicing medicine uh, outside Baylor College, in the group of the other doctors
So in this way I had some independence, because obviously, I could always practice medicine (laughing)
And did you always want to keep your independence,
Yes
and did you know that was always a good thing ?
That’s right, that’s right
Because I, I did not want to be uh, at the mercy of the university or the government
Uh, but I still wanted to stay in academic surrounding, because obviously I came from a family which has great tradition of academic careers
So that’s something which obviously my father was always telling me that I should be really staying in the university, ok
Eh, uh, uh, but finally I decided that I was not going to accept this offer because uh, why should I resign from my private practice
Mmm
It didn’t hurt my research in any way
So I decided to continue, and uh, then that’s when the retaliation occurred, and uh, I was (crazy ?), harassed, and attacked, and finally
And how were you harassed ?
I mean, letters or (peop ?)
Mmm, well, as I could do the research for such a long time, because really, this was some like 7 years at the university, because uh, very few people in the university knew what I was doing, because I was only responding to the National Cancer Institute, and uh, I was not part of the mainstream cancer research center
What happened is that uh, (laugh) I was employed by the Department of Anesthesiology, which obviously, on the surface has nothing to do with cancer, but, who cares ?
I was receiving grants from the National Cancer Institute, and so Anethesiology was a very wealthy department, and they had a lot of space, but they were doing very little research
So they wanted to do some type of research, and uh, the chairman of the department was supportive of my doing cancer research
So basically I conducted uh, Anethesiology
laboratory into cancer, into cancer research laboratory, and very few people knew about it
They learn about it
when uh, the Associated Press (laughing) broke the news
So then uh, the retaliation happened
Mhmm
and then they wanted me to join the mainstream, but obviously I was enjoying very much (laughing) working, in peace and tranquility, and responding only to the National Cancer Institute
So then uh, what happened at that time was that uh, obviously Dr. Unger, moved to another university, and um, uh, the chairman of the department uh, his uh, uh, employment was terminated, because it uh, he was involved in uh, the war between 2 superstars of (the ?)
One of Dr. DeBakey
and the other one was Dr. Cooley
They were 2 famous, eh, eh, cardiovascular surgeons, who were competing with each other
Ehhh, Dr., eh, the chairman of the department, was on the side of Dr. Cooley, but the boss of, uh, Baylor College was Dr. DeBakey
So after Dr., Dr. DeBakey
learned that, uh, the sympathy of Chairman of the Department; which was Dr. Cooley, his job was terminated
So then they, took another man; very old, professor, who was already retired, to be the chairman of the department
They, he knew nothing about, any type of research (laugh), especially cancer research, and, uh, once I decided to not join the mainstream, Baylor Research Center, eh, the people who are in charge of Baylor Research Center, they put a pressure, on the new chairman of the department, and they frightened him, saying look, you are, uh, in a charge of anesthesiology, but here’s a guy doing cancer research, eh, and see this was a great, uh, like liability to you, and pretty soon he may be sued, uh, without knowing what he’s doing
Ok
So then, uh, they, they, um, brainwashed the old man, and he decided to strip me, slowly from my laboratories, eh, and, and, harass me
Ok, uh, ultimately, he sent me the letter that, uh, in which he informed me that he does not see any connection between, uh, my research and anesthesiology; which was obvious, eh, but obviously I was doing the research which made the university famous, more or less
Yeah
So then one thing to another, and I decided, no, I am not going to work with, in this environment anymore, and I decided to do, try to do on my own, to start my own laboratory
So that’s what happened
Ok
And then you did that ?
You had your own, laboratory ?
Yes, and then I decided, this was just the beginning of 1977, and, uh, e, we put together a laboratory; of course I already had private practice, and, uh, I was still working
In your private practice
Yes
you were still seeing patients ?
Absolutely, absolutely
Seeing any results ?
Yeah, seeing patients, getting results
I began phase I clinical trials
Mhmm
in the hospital where I was seeing patients
I had patients at that time, in about 2 or 3 different hospitals, uh, but the hospital, where I get permission to do clinical trials, was a most supportive, and that’s why I did it this way, and, uh, obviously it was necessary for me to build from scratch, the laboratory, the research laboratory
I decided that I just, uh, I just, uh, make some funds in, our private practice, and at that time, of course, this was just, um, general (?) private practice, internal medicine private practice, em, and, uh, the funds which I produced in private practice I can use to, put together the laboratory, and that’s what we did
Ok
Step by step we build the laboratory, and we expanded our private practice
So basically, I switch from the government and then I found it best to fund the research, just privately funded research, which nothing unusual, thhh, some like 50 years before everyone was doing it
Everyone is doing this
Yes, and there’s still some people, especially in the U.K., who are doing this
Ok
Yeah
Um, the most of the discoveries were made through the, sss, through the research that was funded, by the researchers
Mhmm
There are also some, wealthy people who donated the money to do it
So only after World War II, this was, um, the system was created where, the researchers became, um, really became the slaves so, the government
Mhmm
and pharmaceutical companies, and new companies, and if they do not receive the money, they couldn’t do anything
This way I could have independence, and, uh, do whatever I want
Yes
So at what point did it get to where, action was taken against you, and you knew that you were going to have to go to court ?
The action, um, um, started very soon, and the, and began at the lowest level, which is like, county level, and then you go obviously
Mhmm
higher as you move along, and when, uh, I was leaving, uh, the university, the chairman promised me that (laugh) when I leave, uh, the obviously, quote, unquote, “They will bust my ass”
Ok ?
Yeah
(laughing)
When leaving the university
When I was leaving the university ?
Yeah
Yes
And, uh, he promised me that, uh, they will trigger the action from Harris County’s Medical Society; which is probably the lowest level of harassment and just, the somewhat prestigious society if you are are a good doctor practicing medicine, in Harris County, where Houston is, then you should be a member of the Harris County Medical Society
Uh, if you are not a member of Harris County Medical Socity they won’t grant you privileges to see patients in hospital
So this was important to be a member of the Harris County Medical Society because I was practicing medicine
Why do you think
Why do you think they wanted to stop you ?
Why did’d they wanted me to stop ?
Yeah
Well, probably just for the heck of it
I don’t know
(Laughing: both)
Ok
Well do you think they were threatened by you ?
Well, I doubt it
Their probably some type of revenge
Ehhh, since I didn’t yield to their harassment, and I decided to do whatever I was doing, and decide to do it on my own
Mhmm
and they felt, well, let’s try to kick his behind if we can
Ok
Yeah
Well I don’t think I was, uh, causing any threat to them at all, because this was really, large institution
So it escalated ?
Yes
Just starting at the lowest level
It was, eh, unpleasant because they were dragging me to like, holy inquisition proceeding, explain what I was doing, and basically they’re trying to force me to stop what I was doing by using various ways
Obviously they didn’t have any, uh, reason to do it because, uh, my clinical research; which I was doing in the most, done under the supervision of, Institutional Review Board, and before I started anything I asked, uh, I retained medical lawyers, and I asked them to check, if I can, uh, for instance, do the research to use medicine, and use it, in a patient, and they
checked with this, State authorities, Federal authorities, and at that time it was perfectly alright
So I was doing, everything, legally
So, they really couldn’t do much, but, they were harassing me, asking for me to give them a lot of documents, whatever, and suddenly, all of it stopped
It stopped because they were exposed by news media
Yeah
So, when the article was written about it, they disappeared from, the horizon, and then they never, harass me since then (laugh)
Yeah
I think it’s, lasted probably for, 2 or 3 years, and then it was gone, so
And then, and then how did that end up ?
How did you end up going to court for the 1st time then ?
Oh well, so obviously there was no, uh, issue of going to court at that time, it was only the issue that, I might not be a member of, uh
But you might not have been able to practice medicine
the medical society, and then I would not be able to see patients in the hospital
Ok
So this was deliberate, ok, and at that time, m, most of my patients were treated in the hospital, because I didn’t have yet the system to use treatment outside the hospital, like for instance the pumps that we are using now
They did not exist at that time
So it was necessary to use I.V. posts
Mhmm
and, uh, and heavy pump, heavy treatment
So then, uh, so this was, uh, it started around ’78, it continued for a couple of years, and then nothing happened after that
I was visited by, um, FDA people, but we have pretty constructive meeting
They didn’t bother me, and, uh, the next attack occurred in a 1983, and this was by, uh, Food and Drug Administration
So, suddenly I was sued, and, um, they really wanted to put me out of business
Ok
They didn’t just want to put you out of business
I mean, they wanted you, they wanted you to go to prison
No, in ni, 1983, they wanted me out of business
Right, just out of business
Yeah
Don’t want you practicing
Shut down, what I am doing, and they did it, secretly (laugh)
Most of this actions occurred around, uh, just before say Passover, and Easter
Ok
Yeah
Every year
It never failed
Ok (laughing), a, and a usually they were attacking, uh, uh
Someone
No, no
For instance it happened for instance I was away, and, uh, they were filing papers in court, like, um, around 5 p.m. on Thursday, ok, and Friday was day off, because was big Friday, Good Friday
Ok
So then, obviously, um, they then
realized I’d be away because I participated in some T.V. program, and they want to do it while I was away, but, uh, it so happens that
a one of the friendly lawyers was in court at the time, and he overheard whatever they were doing, ok (laughing),they were going for injunction, ok, and so then, uh, I would be stopped immediately
I wouldn’t be able to do much, ok, until the judge would reverse it, but, uh, he read about it and he prepared immediately temporary restraining order, and filed at the same time (laughs)
Yeah
So then, uh, I could practice without any interruptions, but, uh, then, of course,
So do you think of all the people that were trying to stop you
Yeah
Do you think any of those people actually, really, genuinely believed that you were causing harm to people
Hmmm
or do you think that they were just stopping you because ?
I think some stupid people,was at the lower level, like, uh, uh, some lower level FDA agents, they didn’t know what they were doing
They were manipulated, ok, but the guys who above, they knew very well (laughs) that, I was right
They knew what they were doing
Absolutely
They knew you were doing something
Absolutely, yes
groundbreaking
They knew very well, and that’s the reason why they attack me
Ok
Yeah
It’s obvious
So this 1st encounter, was relatively brief
Uh, we went to court, which was Federal court, and the judge, uh, would rule in our favor, and the judge, uh, uh, in the verdict, uh, cleared me from any, of the charges, and, uh, I found that I could, uh, I could treat anybody, by using my methods, but I cannot really, uh, sell medications outside the State of Texas, and that’s what I was not doing anyway
So really,
the judge
affirmed what I was doing
Right
That I’m free to use my invention, and treat people in the State of Texas, which made, of course, the government, uh, people furious, and they threatened the judge
They send the judge a letter saying that, if the judge will not rule their way, then they will go after me with criminal investigation, uh, with seizures, uh, eh, grand jury investigation
That’s what they did as the next step
When was the next step ?
How many years later was that ?
Well again, there was some like couple of years when it was relative quiet
Of course, in order to be, eh, in, eh, in order to do what I was doing, it was necessary for me to have inspection, by the inspectors, approved by the FDA, who
check our manufacturing facility, and, ah, certify that what ever we do, we do right, and there are no discrepancies
So this was obviously something, very difficult, because obviously we knew that the FDA inspectors
will always find something wrong, you know
Yeah
So these agents are trained to always find something wrong, but anyway, at inspection, uh, found we are doing everything perfect
Ok (laughs)
So we were able to pass the inspection
Uh, we are in full compliance with what is called good manufacturing practices, and then everything was quite until about 3 years later when, uh, there was a raid on our clinic by the FDA, and seizure of, ah, medical records, and then there was another, uh, obviously, ah, another, uh, part of the war began, and then, uh, we file a lawsuit against FDA, and, uh, as a result the judge forced the FDA to give back some, of the documents, and permit us to, uh, be able to copy the rest of the documents, and so then, uh, FDA began a grand jury process, and, uh, there was some, like 4 different grand juries, uh, ah, which did not find me, guilty of anything, and then finally 5th grand jury was able to indict me, which was in ’95
Ok
So when you were, when you were going to court; because I remember seeing in the
Yeah
Burzynski, the movie
Yes
I remember seeing in the photographs
Yeah
around here
Sure
there were lots and lots of people outside there (?)
Yeah
What was that like to see that ?
Oh well, ah, this was, uh, going for ever, going to court, and obviously I was going before this grand jury investigation, whatever, but ultimately, their lawsuit, uh, the trial began, in, ah, January of ’96, and, uh, it took a number of months
Ok
So I was going to court almost every day, and the people realized what was going on, and they were giving us a lot of support
So then you can see people outside the court
What was that like to see your patients ?
Well it was, ah, it was, ah, very good, uh, uh, show of (laughs)
Yeah
patient solidarity
They wanted obviously, to help us, and they knew that, uh, they have the power, and, uh, they knew that they were fighting for their lives
Ok ?
So they, uh, were dedicated people
It wasn’t easy because this was winter, and it was raining, and so it was cold weather, but obviously
Were you prepared to, to face what you could have faced, you know, that you actually could have gone to prison ?
Sure, yes
I, I knew, but I was, convinced that I am going to win
So, should I, obviously, statistically it was, uh, highly unlikely, but, uh (laugh)
Do you think that this will stop one day ?
That people will just get off your back, and (laugh)
(laughs)
you know
(?)
and can see what you’ve done
(?)
and, and see that there’s really something there
Absolutely
This is just the (?)
Absolutely, absolutely
I
That’s what I was convinced was going, to happen, and, uh, I was convinced that we are going to win, with FDA
Good, ’cause I mean, anyone does any research
Yeah
you know
I had this on here
Yeah, sure
which I’m sure you’ve seen, like on Wikipedia
Yeah
and what it says
That there’s no convincing evidence
Yeah, sure
that a randomized controlled trial has, you know
That your work, that, that there’s nothing there
Yeah
What’s that like when you come across that stuff
Do you just not read it, and just
So (laughs)
Simply don’t pay attention to it, because it, it’s not true
Ok
Yeah
You won’t be able to, do any, clinical research which we do, without convincing evidence, especially when you have the most powerful agency in the government which is against you
They’re against you, but you’ve been working with them for, for
Yes, so since 1997
Yes, but you see
Yeah
Obviously they didn’t have any sympathy to us because they lost
So they would love to find something which is wrong with what we are doing
They would love to prove that the treatment doesn’t
Yeah
So this is, very difficult
Ah, so the fact that they’ve, um, agreed that what we have has value, and they allow us to do phase 3 clinical trials, it means that we are right
Ok ?
Yeah
Because, uh, uh, nobody who didn’t have any, concrete evidence that it works, would be able to go as far
Ok
Yeah
So whatever Wikipedia says, well, I don’t care for them (laughing)
Ok, so, we, we talked a little bit about, what you, where you’ve come from, and what you’ve been through
As far as your treatment, um, to cancer, and this I’m very interested in, and why you don’t think high doses of chemotherapy is, is particularly helpful for the body, and what
Well it is generally wrong approach
It can help, some patients, wi, with a rare form of cancer, but only, eh, in limited capacity
Those who, are quote, unquote “cured”, usually die later on from adverse reactions, of chronic adverse reactions from chemotherapy or radiation, or they develop secondary cancer
So certainly, there is, this is not such a cure which you have in mind, that, use the treatment, patient recovers and lives normal life
Such cure does not exist for patients who are taking chemotherapy or radiation
They will always suffer, some problems
Either from cancer, or radiation, chemotherapy, and there is only small minority of patients who have advanced cancer who can, have long term responses
So obviously, this is unacceptable treatment
Of course, it was important at certain stage of development, but now, of course, uh, when we know more about cancer, it’s becoming, uh, unacceptable, and I think it will disappear, from the surface of the earth, in another 10 years, or 15 years, and, uh, in the medical textbook, this will be described as strange period of time, when people were using some barbaric treatment
Ok
Mmm
You have a number of different ways of treating cancer
So, one of them is the antineoplastons
Yes
This, this, this is the peptides
Mhmm
The, the this is the thing that my partner is on at the moment
Sure
in the clinical trial, and, uh, you’ve had some real great success
Mhmm
using that
Right ?
Yes
But you also have
Mhmm
another way, of, of, of treating, which is, using, it’s using some sort of chemotherapy, but in low doses
Well, um, um, whatever we are using we are using treatment which works on the genes
Antineoplastonswork on the genes, and they work on about 100 different genes
So what are they doing to the genes ?
Well, they work as molecular switches
They turn off the genes which are causing cancer, and turn on the genes which are fighting cancer
So, that’s what they do, and they produce this in about 100 different genes
It’s not enough, to control all cancer
Actually you can control some cancers, but not all of them, because you may have, numerous genes involved, in cancer
Well, for instance, in average case of breast cancer may have 50 abnormal genes involved
Uh, in, uh, like grade 3 brain tumors, for instance, anaplastic astrocytoma you might 80, or might be 100, but if, uh, you go to highly malignant tumors like, glioblastoma, you have, probably about 550
Eh, if you don’t cover such a spectrum of genes, you won’t, you’re not going to have good results
So that’s why, we know from the very beginning that we have some limitations
We can help some patients but not all of them, because, they have involvement of different genes which are causing, their cancer
So then you can still have these patients who are combining the treatmentof antineoplastons,with different medications which are in existence, which work on different genes, and this includes also some chemotherapy drugs, which are available
Eh, so this means that, um, for the patients for whom we, cannot use antineoplastons, because they are not in clinical trials, then we are using combination treatment, which consists of medication which already, approved as prescription medications, and, uh, by using the right combination by knowing which genes we need to attack, we get much better results
Now this also includes chemotherapy, but we never use, high-dose chemotherapy If necessary, we use low-dose chemotherapy, and when you use low-dose chemotherapy you don’t have, uh, toxicity, which is, bad
We use this for patients continuously, without much problem
So, so one of the main reasons of using low-dose chemotherapy is to try and keep your immune system strong, as well ?
No, to try to quickly decrease the size of the tumor, in combination with the other medications
We can use, for instance, low-dose chemotherapy and another medication which will increase activity,of chemotherapy, and as a result, you can have, as good, uh, uh, decrease of the tumor, with the low-doses
when you use heavy-dose
Well, there’s nothing unusual about it
For instance, uh, many doctors are using medications which are quite toxic
Mmm
And they, if they use the dosages, it’s helpful to the patient
The question is, what dosage will you use ?
If you use the dosages which are not toxic, it may still help the results, for instance, eh, the medication which was introduced, in mid, uh, 18th century for a particle for heart failure, in U.K. by Dr. Withering, which was digitalis extract
Obviously it was highly toxic medication
It can kill people, in dosages much smaller than chemotherapy, but if you use the right dosage, it can help people
It was helping people for over 200 years
So those are the question
What kind of dosage do you use, and what combination do you use, and then, it can be useful
How did work that out then ?
I mean, how did you work out
Mhmm
that using small dosages of chemotherapy, could be effective ?
Uh, well, uh, it’s not only based on, uh, our research, it’s based on the research of the other, doctors
There are numerous publications on the subject, and in many cases the low-dosages can be used more effective than high-dosages, and, uh, on the other hand, by doing genetic testing, we can identify, which, uh, medications are the best for the patient
‘Cause you use
(?)
’cause you use a lab, in Phoenix
Right ?
Correct, yes
And, and how did you find out about them ?
Um, how did you ?
Yeah
Well, uh, uh, frankly speaking (laughs), 1st time I find about it by, treating patients who’s referred to us by one of the best oncologists in the country
He was usually treating some movie stars (laughs)
Yeah
and I found that this patient had, uh, genetic testing done, and I got interested in this, and I found about this laboratory
It was some time ago, but anyway, while we were doing genetic testing before, but, uh, we didn’t use this laboratory yet, we did it, through some other laboratories, and such testing was much, much simpler
So, we are using such testing, for a number of years, but in the capacity we are using now, this is really the last 2 to 3 years
So what happens is someone’s, bit of their tissue gets sent off to this lab ?
Yeah, the tissue is sent to the laboratory, and, uh, they do, testing on the entire genome of 24,000 genes
They identify the abnormal genes, and they go in-depth, by studying what happened to these genes?
Are they mutated ?
Are they amplified ?
And then from this, we have, a lot of information, and ultimately we like to know, which medications we can use to treat genes
What we are doing, we are treating genes, rather than, the tumor, as such
Mhmm
And, uh, if you identify all the genes that are involved, and find out which medications we can use, we can have very good results
And that’s what you found ?
That’s right
So in some case you’re treating people that might have a certain type of cancer
Yes, mhmm
with a drug that was designed for a different type of cancer
Uh, that’s right, because we are treating the genes, and, uh, if you find out that, this particular patient has, uh, an abnormal gene, which is not typical for this cancer but we have medication
Hmmm
that works on this gene, that’s what we use
So I would imagine that to treat, uh, that to treat people, this way, is obviously the future
Everyone’s different
Everyone’s genetics are d, d, different
That’s right
genetic markers, but to treat them that way, would require a bit more work
That’s, uh, obviously (laughs) (a life’s ?) work
Uh, uh, we’ll, like, uh, not just simply for, eh, uh, 4 different types of lung cancer
Yeah
Maybe 100,000 different types of lung cancer, each with, different, uh, genetic signature, ok, and once you identify this, then you can treat, such patients logically, and have good results, and if you do it on the scale of, uh, the entire country, this would, uh, give you much better results, and, uh, great savings, because
Mmm
you won’t use expensive medications for everybody, but perhaps for 10% of the population, and then for this 10% of population is going to work
Yeah
Which means that these people will avoid disability
They won’t spend time in the hospital
Uh, they will have short course of treatment, and then they go back to work
So the government would understand, uh, that’s something that can give them a lot of savings
I think they will go for it
Eh, gene testing, eh, at this time is still, uh, relatively expensive
It’s covered by, uh, the insurance of the United States, but for people outside, may cost 5500 euros, for instance, but I think it will be substantially less expensive in the near future
I think it will be below $1,000 for complete testing
So for running the test, uh, uh, eh, and, uh, finding out which treatment, has the best chance, you can save, 100’s of 1,000’s of dollars for individual patients
Yeah, but obviously pharmaceutical companies probably wouldn’t be too happy about that
No, no
People aren’t going to be taking their medications anymore
Well obviously be mostly happy that they can sell a lot of medications, but some of them are beginning to pay the attention, because they have to, because if they don’t, their competitors, will pay the attention
Mmm
Obviously, they would like to have, possibly, the best possible results, in clinical trials, so now they begin to screen population of patients for clinical trials, and do some limited, genetic testing, but, so, of course, they do it, uh, for the better of clinical trials so have best results
Yeah
Doesn’t mean that they’ll do, do it when they sell medicine, to millions of people commercially
They may forget about mentioning this medicine works the best for
Yes
this population of patient (laughs)
So what’s your, your vision ?
Wha, wha, what do you, striving to achieve ?
Well what I am trying to achieve is to introduce the way we treat patients, in, in various countries in the world, and, uh, what this would accomplish is, 1st of all, much better results of the treatment, much simpler treatment where perhaps only 1% of patient would need hospitalization, which would, uh, result in great savings
Uh, the treatment, uh, will be done for shorter period of time
For instance, few months to get rid of the tumors, then, uh, perhaps a year, to stabilize the results, and then go back, working and living, ok, without cancer
This, uh, genetic, genomic testing would be absolutely done for every patient who will come for treatment, to identify, what is the best treatment combination indication
So that’s what I would like to foresee, and then, of course, um, immediately, you substantially reduce, the expenditures for medical
For instance, if, you assume that in the mid, medium-sized country, will spend, for instance, a billion dollar, for, socialized medical treatment which will coincide with hospitalization
Ok
Uh, then, uh, most of the cost is for hospitalization, and services necessary for keeping the patient in hospital, then treating adverse reactions, which are, occurring because of the poor selection of medications
Eh, then if you switch to the outpatient treatment because you use medications which are not going to give such bad, side-effects, because you select this medication based on genomic testing, ok, and then immediately instead of a billion dollars a year, you cut down your expenditures to about $100,000
Yeah
100 million dollars
Ok ?
Probably slash it 10 times
Ok ?
And then people will be happy because, ah, the don’t need to stay in the hospital for a long time
They have less adverse reactions
They can go to back to work, much sooner
Ok
So that’s what I, can foresee as, the treatmentin the future
Not really hospital-based treatment
Mhmm
for patients, and most hospitalization is required because of adverse reactions from chemotherapy, radiation, but outpatient treatment, much easier treatment, also medication given in tablet forms, for instince
And that’s what you’re doing here, right ?
I mean
Correct, yes correct
Usually in hospital, only, perhaps, for, one or two percent of patients, and, we would like to avoid it because when the patient goes to the hospital, he can pick up, some in-opportunistic infection, and then we are talking about more problem
Of course, I believe detection of cancer will be very important, because you don’t want to, uh, have a patient who is so advanced that he is fighting for, life, and he needs to be in the hospital
Ok
Yeah
If you had diagnosis in the early stages, then the patient does not need hospitalization
He can be treated very easily, then go back to work
So that’s the issue
And of course prevention is another important issue to us
To identify, changes in the body, which may indicate that the patient has already, early stages of cancer, also based on genetic tests, and get rid of this by using, behavior modification, by using proper diet, by using supplements, whatever, even without any medications
So, you’re obviously very passionate about what you do
Right ?
That, that’s my question about that
Well, I think it can help s, people in a great way, and, uh,
Well it can, I mean
Yeah
You have had so many su
Yes
I mean, I was talking to my girlfriend
Yeah
the other day,
Yeah
I mean, people, you know, you hear people say, this is a scam, and I was thinking, well the, if it is a scam
Yeah
it has to be one of the biggest scams ever
(laughing)
because all you’ve gotta do, is look on the walls
Yeah
and you look at those photographs
Yeah
Perhaps, this won’t surprise you
I’ve spoken to some oncologists just in the U.K., and they say, all of these people that you have helped, they either ever had cancer in the 1st place
Mhmm
or they were misdiagnosed
Yeah
or, uh, they went into spontaneous remission
Yeah, well
or they, it was the chemotherapy or radiation
These people, they don’t know what they do
They never, have never seen our results, and obviously they can’t believe that something like this could happen, but suddenly (laughs), in this room we are in now, we have some of
the top experts in the country, like people from FDA, who are expert oncologists, specialists
They’re working with you
Oh, they came here to inspect what we have
Yeah
They look at every scan of the people who are in clinical trials, and they decided that we have very good results
And is that stuff going to be published at some point ?
Ah, yes, we are publi, we are preparing this for publication, but, uh, obviously, in order to have the right results, you need, time, and most of our clinical trials began, approximately 10 years ago
So then we, if you would like to know what happen after, 10 years with these people
Mhmm
then you need to have a little time
So now we are preparing a number of, uh, publications, uh, and so this year we should have a number of publications, which will show final results
So far we didn’t have, final results, so were only interim reports, during the course of clinical trials
And with, uh, with brain tumors; because obviously, that’s an area that you’ve had
Yeah
huge suc, success rate
Yeah
What, why has that, do you think, as opposed to the other, types ?
Because that’s where we selected
Mhmm
We wanted to have something difficult
Ok (laughs)
Yeah
Because, uh, for the same reason that you mentioned
If you’d had something easier then, the doctors could say: “Well, this cancer usually disappears in its own”
And they are right
Some cancers may disappear on its own, in some higher percent than the others
Mhmm
But you know, brain tumors, you read, they never disappear on their own
Yeah
So that’s why we, decided to select such type of malignancies which are the most difficult
So what’s that been like when you’ve seen, I mean, I’ve seen obviously Jodi Fenton’s story
Yeah
Whe, whe, when you see these people’s
Yes
uh, scans
Yeah
and you see that that tumor has shrunk
Yeah
or broken down
Yeah
wha, what does that feel like ? (laughing)
Well, we see this all the time
(?) it just happens almost every day
Even today that we saw the patient, uh, who has pancreatic cancer, and after a few months of treatment it’s practically gone, and she is the wife of a doctor (laughs)
They came together, and that’s, that’s what we see practically every day
Ok
That must give you great strength to
Absolutely
continue
Absolutely, yes
So that’s something which is gratifying (laughs)
Yeah
What do you think the future is as far as drugs for cancer are concerned ?
I believe that, we are still at a very early stages of development in this area, but the future will be, with medications which are, highly specific, they will work on the genes that are involved in cancer
So, they will not harm normal part of the body, and, du, du, how to combine this medications will be established by, the special software, which will guide the doctors how to use proper medication for individual patient
I think this will be the, um, treatment that will be designed for, individual patient, and such design, it is not necessary to be done by the doctor
I think it should be, uh, certain computerized system which will put together, the best possible treatment plan, for a patient; which obviously needs to be checked and approved by the doctor
So I believe that this will be the future of medicine for the next, say, 40, and 50 years, coming up with better and better medications, which will be genomic switches, which will turn off, the cancerous process by regulating the genes which are involved; they simply will bring, the activity of these genes to normal levels, and finally, the new generation of medication which should work on cancerous stem cells, and, the medications which can kill cancerous stem cells without, uh, producing any harm to normal stem cells
So this will be the clue for, long-term control of cancer, because if you don’t eliminate, cancerous stem cells then the cancer will come back
Yeah
And that’s why chemotherapy, usually is unable to control cancer for a long time because, it’s pretty much powerless, ah, uh, regarding action on cancerous stem cells
But then after that, I think that we will make another, jump, and there will be, uh, procedures that will based on biophysics
Mmm
and by trying to get rid of, uh, the cancer and some of the diseases by effecting the body by using various, uh, wipes, which will be like magnetic wipes, it will be some other types of wipes, but using proper frequencies to, normalize all the cells in the body to normalize the activity of the genes
I think this will be a
Mmm
probably the next, uh, say 50 years of, uh, the end of this century when such (?)
So no one’s getting funding really, unless they’re doing it privately to,
being able to, isn’t that being able to research these areas, because funding really comes from pharmaceutical companies ?
Ah, well, most of this funding is from pharmaceutical companies, and also it is coming from the National Cancer Institute but, I think it’s regulated behind the scenes by the pharmaceutical companies
Eh, but they are still some researchers who are trying to do it on their own
Very few of them
I think there’s articles, in the Science magazine, some time ago which was talking about, uh, few of these researchers who are still trying to do, research on their own, and, I think, uh, I think there were probably some 4 or 5 of them in U.K. (laugh)
Yeah
still involved in research on their own
So what ah, what about the role of the mind ?
Do you think that, if someone has cancer and they wanna be well, do you think the way that someone thinks is important ?
Absolutely, that’s very important because, this, uh, can be translated, ah, to various biochemicals which can influence cancer
So obviously this is very important but, the question is how to, ah, direct this in the proper way
Ok
How to quantify this
So that’s something that should be done in the future
And nutrition as well
Yes, absolutely, yes
Why all have a lot of important chemicals in nutrition which can effectuate cancer, but regarding the mind you have to translate, uh, for instance, biophysical factors, in the brain, into biochemical factors, and certainly, that’s what the body’s doing all the time, but how to mobilize it, that’s a different story
Yeah
So if someone wants, if someone came to the Burzynski Clinic, wh, wh, what could they expect, to happen here?
Well 1st of all, we would like to give a selection, and we don’t want the people who we cannot treat to come
Uh, at this time we rather avoid, uh, patients in early stages of cancer, because with such patients, uh, what is used is standard of care treatment, and we prefer to refer them to, ah, different doctors
So we prefer to treat it once cancer patient, because, uh, they cannot be helped by the other doctors, and, uh, when they come to our clinic, we try to find out 1st, see if we can really help them or not, and, uh, once they come to the clinic, in most of the cases we can try to, help them, of course, and, uh, we put together, the personalized treatment plan, which is (?)
But all of those go through you
You look at every single one of those
Yes
I’m seeing every patient, who’s coming, if I’m
Yeah
if I’m around here, but, after that all the patients are really assigned to different senior physician and they’re responsible for daily care of patient here
How many people do you have, working here now ?
About 150 people here, yes
And you started with, well, just one (?)
Eh, I think really when we moved from Baylor College I had about 7 people at that time
Yeah
Yes, because, some of these doctors who are working together at Baylor College decided to leave together with me, including my wife, because she was also working at Baylor College
Yeah
Ok
Thank you
You’re welcome
My pleasure
Thank you so much
Thank you very much
Ok
======================================
I will be doing some data clean-up and adding additional video transcripts
——————————————————————
What stood out to me in the first and lastvideos is that you could hear both sirens and birds
Unlike “The Skeptics™” (sirens) #whining, the birds were celebrating Hannah #winning
——————————————————————
Just as I did with the case of Burzynski patient Laura Hymas, so will I do with her friend, Hannah Bradley
Yes, unlike “Orac” I will let Hannah speak for herself instead of adding any bias as “Dr. Check my Facts” Hack does
—————————————————————— Team Hannah Blog
6/6/2013 – Posted by Hannah
(6:14)
Okay
Hello everyone
Hi
It’s uh Thursday the 6th of June
Yes
(laugh) And uh we’ve got some really good news
We’ve kind of been holding back a little but
we just wanted to be certain
so what were you going to say
Uh, I am finally off treatment
Finally off treatment which is great so as far as Dr. Burzynski is concerned, the treatment is now finished
Hannah is free
Free of the bag
Free of
Yes
Yes
How’s that feel
Yeah, it feels really kind of strange to be honest
Well you want to go back on it again
No
No
But I
I miss the bag, because I miss carrying around ohhh
Now you’re just being a little bit stupid
Um, but the great news is today, we went to go and see Hannah’s surgeon
Yes
Oncologist
A another surgeon another doctor um
Yeah
And that was a bit strange because the last time that we saw surgeon he gave us
it was probably one of the worst days of our life
Yep
He gave us the results of
Your biopsy
Yep
Which was a grade 3 tumor uh I can remember that like that was yesterday
I don’t really remember
Well but I do
It was amazing uh seeing him today because he’s just basically just agreed with everything that uh that’s been said in America that Hannah’s doing really really well she as far as she’s concerned you don’t have to have any scan for another 6 months
No
Uh so you know really kind of cancer free and
Yep
Now, you know, it is incredible
It’s a bit of a miracle and
it both hasn’t hit home
really
How much
Yeah
How much is
Well we can start our life
We can start our lives, again
Again (laugh)
And um we just want to say
a massive thank you
the list is just
this isn’t the end for us
I’m sure we
boring you
(laughing)
had a very long day
We had to wait an hour and a half (laugh)
(laugh) Sorry I couldn’t help
Calm down
The the list of people that we have to thank
Need
Need to thank is so long, and obviously way up at the top of that list has to be uh Dr. Burzynski and all of the people at the Burzynski Clinic who have been just amazing, you know
Just so supportive um and I suppose really without that treatment I don’t
I don’t think
I don’t
No
I don’t think
You don’t think you’d what ?
It’s not worth thinking about
Yeah, it’s not worth thinking about
But um we have to thank every single person that contributed and helped us and supported us along the way
Everyone that helped us raise money
Um
to thank
Here we go
Who else do we need to thank
I think
Come back up
Come on
(laugh)
We have to thank uh
like I said it’s been a long day today
Uh we have to thank Jamie Lowe
Yes
We have to thank Lindley Gooden
Who else do we have to thank ?
Uh all the people that were in Team Hannah
Yeah
All of your friends
My parents
Your parents
Mhmm
Um just everyone that’s been watching these blogs
We really, really couldn’t have done it without you
And um
We are really, really thankful
You don’t want to go do you ?
Hannah and I were thinking about doing our own comedy show because a lot of people
comments like we’re so funny
Yeah
And who’s the funniest
Uh oh you
Yeah you
Me
Me
Me
Um
So, I don’t know what else to say really apart from, you know, this is really a bit of a fairy tale for us
We know how fortunate
we are and we know how
people
who we met along the way
who weren’t
haven’t been as fortunate as us
So we uh
So, are you alright down there ?
we’re talking about something serious
Very
Yeah, we know a lot of people who haven’t been as fortunate
As fortunate as we have people are forever in our hearts
You know, um, we know how lucky we are and um
We’re going to make the most of our lives the most of our lives together
Um, yeah
We really do think that
No don’t
You know, there was a time
Many, many times where I really didn’t think that Hannah would be here but, you know, we’re talking 2 1/2 years ago that she was diagnosed and she’s doing better than ever even though she is yawning
(laugh)
Um
I don’t think there’s any words that really put into a sense of how so lucky we think we are, and I really think it’s how our legacy to live with that and try and inspire other people as much as we can as well
Ok
So, we’re not going to get go anywhere we’re still we’ll still let you know from time to time how we’re getting on
Uh um I also think we need to give a massive shout out to Ben and Laura Hymas as well who, who really, we went to see them the week before we went to, out to America, and it was there, was a, was a bit of a shock
Really
Realizing what we were about to take on but um she’s
I’m very sorry
She’s someone else who’s done well and we want to give a big shout out to them because we know that they’ve got their lives ahead of them as well as we do too
So, I think without any further ado we’ll give your famous wave
(wave)
It’s not really a wave, is it
Thank you very much everyone
Thank you
Big hug
Wanna hug ?
C’mon
C’mon hug us [10]
====================================== London[1]
4/2010 – first met Hannah and we fell in love and since then our relationship has gone from strength to strength [3]
Hannah (28) has great personality and fantastic sense of humour [3]
10/5/2012 – from Elstead[12]
4/4/2013 – Hannah Bradley (28)[11]
Hannah Bradley from London, UK [15]
====================================== MOOD ======================================
Looking back now, was quite naive [1]
2/2011 – world took dramatic turn [11]
Hannah Bradley from London, UK [15]
To my complete horror [11]
whole world was turned upside down [11]
confused [11]
scared of all the unanswered questions that lay before me
why was this happening to ME? [11]
What did the future hold? [11]
Will I be okay? [11]
absolutely terrified as realised something seriously wrong [15]
Everybody else went into panic, but shock calmed [15]
Inside, scared, could see how frightened Pete was [15]
wasn’t easy decision but really wasn’t another choice [15]
Fear pulsed through me as was wheeled to theatre for operation [15]
4/2011 – thought once surgery over, tumour would be gone [1]
“Hello,” I croaked [15]
“Have I still got all my hair?” [15]
beamed as Pete nodded [15]
long blonde locks were pride and joy, and surgeons managed to operate without having to shave any [15]
Waiting for results was one of most harrowing periods for me and my partner [11]
had to wait for results of biopsy for few weeks and remained positive [3]
while trying to remain positive throughout [11]
tried to keep busy so didn’t dwell on what doctors would say [15]
it was hard [15]
sensed before they even spoke [15]
faces were so serious it had to be bad news [15]
Obviously medical professionals have to be detached when deliver news, but we completely broke down [15]
tried to bite back sobs so could hear what they were saying [15]
blinked for moment, realising meant me [15]
left hospital, in daze [15]
went to sit in park for 2 or 3 hours, working out how to tell everyone [15]
rang dad, feeling ashamed he had to deal with news [15]
didn’t want to upset him [15]
Pete and I rang close friends and family and became easier each time [15]
got chain going to spread news so didn’t have to ring everybody, which was relief [15]
gave me space to come to terms with diagnosis [15]
Once able to get head around it, felt detached from it: [15]
needed to get through next stage now [15]
needed 6 weeks of radiotherapy, did that, thinking this would make me better [1]
Hannah’s bravery and resolve once again rose up as shortly after this she started 6 week course of radiotherapy[3]
news was not good and world was rocked once more as results showed Grade III tumour[11]
whole world suddenly fell apart again and that very moment I didn’t know how to go on [11]
knew had to carry on and from somewhere I didn’t know existed within me, found some bravery and started to have next course of treatment, 6-week course of radiotherapy[11]
hope you will understand this was REALLY difficult for me as I loved my hair and without it felt horrible and ugly [11]
coped well at first, until hair came out in clumps [15]
warned could be few patches of fall, but lost it all [15]
wore headscarves but mourned my hair [15]
work in skincare sales and used to having to look my best [15]
know it was vain, but hair was part of my femininity [15]
missed it [15]
awful but kept going, knowing had to [15]
Seeking alternatives [15]
full of hope [15]
know it’s long fight ahead but feel everyone is behind me and
get so much from that [15]
have a mantra, which like to think I made up but think I read somewhere: [15]
‘You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.’ [15]
exactly how I feel [15]
there was some hope [12]
was truly an incredible time and once again I was filled with hope as so many people came to my aid to support me by raising money and donating what they had [11]
still so thankful for all that support [1]
absolutely overjoyed [1]
wouldn’t turn my back on conventional medicine, but would advise anyone in situation like mine to look into other options – there could always be another way [1]
“If this whole thing has taught me anything, it’s that.” [1]
Thankfully along with other treatment, strategy has worked for me and I’m now trying to help others who are fighting against this horrible disease[11]
====================================== HEALTH ======================================
was salesperson when diagnosed with cancer[1]
ate on the run [1]
smoked[1]
had no real symptoms or warning signs[1]
2/2011 – out of the blue, Hannah had major seizure in middle of the night [3]
2/2011 – one night Hannah’s life changed drastically without any prior health concerns suddenly had major seizure[12]
2/2011 – had grand seizure while asleep [1]
2/2011 – major seizure in middle of night [11]
arms up in the air, body shaking [1]
2/2011 – lost consciousness and was rushed to hospital [3 + 11]
woke in hospital, had no idea what had happened, tests revealed brain tumour size of golf ball in frontal lobe [15]
didn’t know anything wrong before had massive seizure in sleep [15]
boyfriend thought was having nightmare at first, but when couldn’t wake me, realised was unconscious and called ambulance [15]
came round in hospital few days later and didn’t remember anything [15]
2/2011 – 4/2011 – don’t remember much about 2 months that followed apart from seeing many doctors, having constant headaches and a # of seizures[11]
had constant headaches and number of seizures[3]
Eventually CT scan showed brain tumour, turned out to be very aggressive, anaplastic astrocytoma[1]
week after CAT and MRI scans told had brain tumour size of golf ball [15]
in frontal lobe and probably growing there for years [15]
doctor gave 3 options: [15]
leave it and see what happened
have biopsy to discover what type of tumour it was and how aggressive
go for surgery to try to remove as much as possible [15]
diagnosed with very serious brain tumour[3]
diagnosed with very aggressive brain tumour[11-12]
2/2011 – 4/2011 – have no memories of that time, from the night of seizure to coming around from 8-hour operation to remove tumour 2 months later[1]
had about 4 more seizures – including one 2 nights before surgery last April – after discharged because tumour growing and putting so much pressure on brain [15]
Pain throbbed through inside of skull as peeled eyes open [15]
Groggy, focused and saw Pete smiling down at me [15]
was in hospital 5 days before going home to rest and getting biopsy results [15]
2 weeks later, went back to see consultant and specialist nurse [15]
news was not good and our world was rocked once more as results showed Grade III tumour[3]
tumour was cancerous and had scary name – anaplastic astrocytoma [15]
4 grades of brain tumours with 4th being worst [15]
Mine grade 3 [15]
statistics quoted said person with grade-3 tumour lives around 5 years [15]
life expectancy for people with tumours like this was 18 months[1]
2 weeks into treatment was hit by wave of tiredness [15]
so shattered had to go to bed for week [15]
went well for 1st few weeks but followed by hair falling out and bouts of tiredness and lethargy[3]
lost hair
started having seizures and didn’t know how long she had to live [12]
was still having seizures and lost independence with losing driving licence [11]
On top of all of this, dealing with losing driving licence as had number of seizures and now has epilepsy[3]
At end of July, had another MRI scan, revealed still residue left from tumour [15]
6 weeks after radiotherapy finished, had another MRI to see what was going on with tumour, Once again more bad news, as there were still remnants of aggressive tumour[3]
Although it was hard I remained hopeful that 6 weeks after radiotherapy would help and I could go on to live a normal life but again results of next MRI were not good [11]
There were still remnants of aggressive tumour[11]
At this point treatment options where very limited and life expectancy was not very long [11]
was told only options available on National Health Service were to operate or have radiotherapy again [15]
Chemotherapy also mentioned but not strong enough for that [15]
doctors said were really uncertain of expected life span if didn’t do anything and since treatment options in UK so limited, we want to try something else [15]
didn’t know 100% whether would work, but had to believe in something; wanted to be positive [1]
Just 8 months after starting treatment had some incredible news [12]
latest scans show she is cancer free[12]
desire to beat this disease led me to make number other lifestyle changes [11]
One of biggest changes has been dietary; specifically cutting out most sugars from my diet [11]
involved learning how to cook, which in itself was huge challenge because I hated cooking with a passion [11]
Over time I started experimenting with different foods and became more and more adventurous and dare I say it, I even started to enjoy coming up with new healthy recipes [11]
quickly learned that exclusive food of cancer is sugar, so quickly embraced this and cut out almost completely starchy carbohydrates and refined sugars by incorporating sugar free/starch free food plan [11]
idea being that diet would feed my body, mind and starve cancer into submission [11]
also learnt this type of diet is good for blood sugar regulation, body composition and is consistent with the way that our ancestors ate thousands of years ago [11]
After months of experimentation and with help of couple of great cooks, have learned to make delicious and nutritious healthy meals and this is why I decided to write my own book, The Team Hannah Cookbook[11]
It’s my contribution to helping and inspiring others to eat a better diet [11]
I would hope you can enjoy these recipes and make them part of your diet [11]
This book will show you how easy it is uto cut out the carbs and still eat “normally.” [11]
I now believe that dieting and counting calories doesn’t work [11]
Low carb is the way forward [11]
You will find in my book great low carbohydrate recipes for – Breakfasts, Breads & Pastries, Starters, Salads, Mains, Desserts, Treats [11]
====================================== TREATMENT ====================================== 2/2011 – partner, Pete, called ambulance, was rushed to hospital, unconscious [1]
decided to have operation, hopeful would get rid of it [15]
in hospital 2 weeks following 1st seizure and put on strong medication to stop from having fits [15]
kept awake 2 1/2 hours of 6-hour surgery – medical team wanted to make sure weren’t damaging any part of brain, where tumour was, relating to speech and language [15]
made list of what to talk about with speech therapist during operation, such as meeting Pete at conference in Croatia year before; favourite American TV series, Friends, niece who’d been staying with family week before seizure [15]
remember having to touch fingers with thumbs to check movement still there, hand or my leg would involuntarily move when surgeon touched particular part of brain and asking anaesthetist to scratch itch on nose [15]
“It’s going fine, we’re putting you back to sleep now,” voice said and everything went black [15]
4/2011 – 8-hour operation to remove tumour[1]
4/1/2011 – decided to have surgery underwent 6 1/2 hour operation[3]
4/1/2011 – surgery and underwent grueling 6 1/2 hour operation[11]
To my relief
results of operation were fairly successful and surgeon managed to remove uhmost of tumour[11]
diagnosed with Anaplastic Astrocytoma brain tumour and over next few months endured 6-hour operation and 6 weeks of radiotherapy[12]
started radiotherapy 8 weeks after surgery [15]
full on – 6 weeks of treatment, Monday to Friday [15]
needed 6 weeks of radiotherapy, did that, thinking this would make me better [1]
radiotherapy went well for 1st few weeks but fears were confirmed when hair started to fall out [11]
was gruelling – hair fell out, had quite a few seizures – then, at end, scan showed still had remnants of very aggressive tumour[1]
Pete started researching alternative treatments from beginning and was Dr Stanislaw Burzynski, biochemist and physician in US, who seemed right choice for me [15]
found pioneering treatment in America which could give her a chance [12]
One name kept cropping up [1]
Dr Burzynski[1]
treatment is controversial – claims to have identified peptides called antineoplastons, which act as molecular switch to turn off cancer cells without harming normal cells [15]
After reading everything we could, decided to try it [15]
At his clinic in Houston he’s developed a treatment using anti-cancer compounds he discovered and now manufactures – and is treating aggressive tumours, especially ones in the brain [1]
controversial [1]
medical community claims unscientific and unproven [1]
oncologist didn’t want me to go – he wanted to monitor tumour and maybe give more radiotherapy in future [1]
that was like containing it, not getting rid of it, and treatment hadn’t worked so far [1]
Dr Burzynski seemed to be only hope of getting rid of cancer for good [1]
In order to get it needed to raise £150,000 [12]
treatment wasn’t cheap (about £200,000) [1]
treatment very costly, and even using all savings didn’t have nearly enough [15]
£200,000 (Dh1.16 million) needed to go to US, plus ongoing shipping of drugs from States and private monthly scans will need for 12-18 months, was out of reach [15]
Family and friends offered to help, soon there was Team Hannah website [15]
Within few weeks had £35,000, enough to go to US for consultation and start treatment [15]
didn’t know 100% whether would work, but had to believe in something; wanted to be positive [1]
Treatment available in America[12]
Luckily was able to take part in phase 2 clinical trial in Texas, USA [11]
treatment isn’t available via NHS so had to raise considerable amount of money [11]
12/2011 – flew with Pete to Burzynski Clinic[1]
—————————————————————— 12/10/2011 – Saturday – video blog
leaving tomorrow morning
—————————————————————— 12/11/2011 – Day 1 – Sunday
flew to USA massive headache
thought was going to faint
—————————————————————— 12/12/2011 – Day 2 – Monday Burzynski Clinic
temp check
vision test
meeting: Dr. Yi oncologist / Dr. Greg Burzynski
(Dr. Rowkowski)
—————————————————————— 12/13/2011 – Day 3 – Tuesday Burzynski Clinic
inject sugar syrup PET scan
MRI scan review
?’s memory / spelling jumbled
fill out form Valium
(as much local anesthetic as could give her w/o knocking her out) catheter – Hickman line
(painful / really painful)
—————————————————————— 12/14/2011 – Day 4 – Wednesday Burzynski Clinic
(feeling wrecked / absolutely wrecked)
start treatment 6 doses of antineoplaston a day 4 hours apart almost 24 hours continuously
(had chest x-ray)
(Dr. Barbera – talk pain medication)
lessons: clamps / hoses / pump
—————————————————————— 12/15/2011 – Day 5 – Thursday Burzynski Clinic
(Day 2 of treatment)
lessons: change pump
—————————————————————— 12/20/2011 – Day 10 – Tuesday Burzynski Clinic Dr. Yi / Dr. SRB enhancing – asked to stay month – next MRI to be done
—————————————————————— 12/22/2011 – Day 12 – Thursday Dr. Hilary Jones on Daybreak
(Pete’s colleague)
—————————————————————— 12/24/2011 – Day 14 – Saturday
fever
bad breathing
shivering all night
—————————————————————— 12/25/2011 – Day 15 – Sunday Burzynski Clinic
flu symptoms
breathing
headache
uncontrollable chills couldn’t stop
Monica off ANP
absolutely exhausted
in bed
little bit of swelling back of head
—————————————————————— 12/27/2011 – Day 17 – Tuesday
back on ANP
temp 102
called Burzynski Clinic off ANP
temp down / up
—————————————————————— 12/28/2011 – Day 18 – Wednesday Burzynski Clinic on ANP much smaller dose
exhausted
close to breaking / cracking
—————————————————————— 12/29/2011 – Day 19 – Thursday
hospital “I’m at my wits end” “I don’t feel I can take anymore”
—————————————————————— 12/30/2011 – Day 20 – Friday
last week up & down
off on off on off
fever
chills
shaking
viral infection
bacterial infection
had to go to E.R.
surreal
—————————————————————— 12/31/2011 – Day 21 – Saturday
fever in middle of night
temp 102 Dr. SRB thinks flu-like symptoms or tumor actually breaking down ->
——————————————————————
1/2012 – started treatment[11]
—————————————————————— 1/1/2012 – Day 22 – Sunday Burzynski Clinic
feel drunky
prob w pump – not closing
felt like completely drunk
double vision
Nurse said anti-seizure drug she hadn’t taken before
bit shaky
Gary – directions re pump equip
—————————————————————— 1/17/2012 – Day 38 – Tuesday Burzynski Clinic
temp 101.8
throat infection
If 102 take off ANP
BC 3x – blood – supplies
antibiotics 1 day
antibiotics 2 day – over 102 last night
fever
antibiotics been on 3 days off ANP
disappointed
pointless
—————————————————————— 1/20/2012 – Day 41 – Friday
fever
104 (103.9)
Friday night
—————————————————————— 1/21/2012 – Day 42 – Saturday Burzynski Clinic
temp up to 104
Dr. on-call – Ibuprofen 102.5
yesterday afternoon (blood) rash ? off ANP Dr. Popper
—————————————————————— 1/23/2012 – Day 44 – Monday Burzynski Clinic Dr. SRB
gave name from pic
some itch MRI – was to have Wed (12/29/2011 prev MRI) less tumor less enhancement shrunk by at least 10%
call Dad
Been 1 month
Discharge
take Ashley
Rick
Fri – leave
—————————————————————— 1/26/2012 – Day 47 – Thursday Burzynski Clinic Stable Disease
stabilization
—————————————————————— 1/27/2012 – Friday – leave
—————————————————————— medication is administered directly into your body through Hickman line 24 hours a day[1]
not an easy option [1]
Pete and I learnt how to prepare and administer treatment ourselves and carried on in Britain for another 18 months (1 year 6 months)[1]
were there for 7 weeks, and scans showed in that time tumour reduced by 11%[1]
Thankfully has been successful in shrinking tumour[11]
blood was checked twice a week, was scanned every 6 weeks at private hospital [1]
Most importantly, seemed to be working [1]
—————————————————————— 6/2012 – back 6 months 3 scans
6/13/2011
12/7/2011
3/21/2012 – 1
5/2/2012 – 2
7/29/2012 – 3
7 weeks at Burzynski Clinic
Complete Response
—————————————————————— tumour kept getting smaller, in January this year it was all gone [1]
started treatment and after 9 months had complete response and will continue on treatment until 4/2013 / 5/2013[3]
now off treatment but still being monitored [1]
Dr Burzynski isn’t miracle worker [1]
There are well-publicised cases of families raising money for children to be treated at the clinic but children still tragically dying [1]
People have posted on our website that it doesn’t work, but I’m convinced that, if we hadn’t found him, I wouldn’t be here today [1]
====================================== SUPPORT ====================================== Pete Cohen:Team Hannah set up to save life of my partner, Hannah Bradley, who’s 28 years old and has brain cancer[3]
All this time, without knowing, Pete had been looking into things, searching, talking to anyone and everyone who could possibly help [1]
needed to raise around £200,000 to give her opportunity to have life-saving treatment at The Burzynski Clinic in Houston, Texas [3]
Pete launched campaign – friends and family gathered around, held events, our local radio station supported us – in 2 months already had £100,000, enough to start treatment[1]
You helped her to get it… [12]
Eagle Radio wanted to help give Hannah hope by raising money towards her fund [12]
you wanted to help too [12]
Hannah came in to Eagle Radio to meet Breakfast Show presenters PG and Bev[12]
Listen to interview here: [12]
Pete (Hannah’s boyfriend) met our reporter Anthony Zahra and starts by talking about how couple met: [12]
Jeremy (Hannah’s dad) spoke to our reporter Elizabeth Williams:[12]
photos on Hope for Hannah appeal [12]
——————————————————————
Fundraising events you told us about [12]
—————————————————————— 7/21 – Matthew Cank from Farnham doing sponsored bike ride with friends riding from John O’Groats to Lands End[12] http://2theend.co.uk
——————————————————————
** 2/24 (Friday) – Pure Dance at Backline, Guildford from 8pm to 2.30am House, electro & trance music with DJs on rotation Entry £10 with all proceeds going to the appeal [12]
——————————————————————
** 2/25 (Saturday) – Dinner, Dance and Auction at The Mandolay Hotel, Guildford (6.30pm to 12.30am) evening of fantastic food & excellent entertainment [12]
——————————————————————
** 3/3 (Saturday) – special night held at Godalming Naval Club by Hannah’s best friend
£7.50 a ticket All money to the appeal Includes – food, disco, raffles, auction and more [12]
——————————————————————
** 5/19 (Saturday) – Health, Beauty & Fitness Fair at Clock Barn Hall, Godalming Free admission, free talks on health, fitness and nutrition Includes – mini treatments, fitness drop in classes, taster sessions, new health products Raffle & bucket collection to raise money for Team Hannah [12]
——————————————————————
Your generosity was astounding and Hannah surpassed her target much earlier than she could have dreamed [12]
Hannah’s Annectdote
A film about Hannah’s journey to The Burzynski Clinic
film we made called Hannah’s Anecdote [3]
made to share with world Hannah’s journey to beat cancer and live normal life [3]
you can see Team Hannah blog we started October last year as well more information about Dr. Burzynski and treatment for cancer [3]
totally aware of controversy surrounding Dr. Burzynski but have seen with our own eyes he saved Hannah’s life [3]
share this with everyone you can, so together we can raise awareness of Hannah’s success and of Dr. Burzynski [3]
cookbook by Hannah available at teamhannah.com [1]
Any help you give will be most appreciated and will keep you updated with Hannah’s journey [3] http://www.teamhannah.com/
Thank you for donating, raising awareness and simply helping to give Hannah hope [12]
—————————————————————— Hannah’s Annectdote: (40:42)
——————————————————————
A film about Hannah’s journey to The Burzynski Clinic
——————————————————————
Look
You’ve got a spirit level in the cam, in the front of the camera for a reason
I know
Ok
—————————————————————— Hannah’s Anectdote
——————————————————————
I’m Hanna Bradley and I’m 27 years old
I have
Well, I found out I had a brain tumor in February 2011
The way I found out is, I had a seizure in, during the middle of the night
I don’t remember anything, but my partner Pete tells me that I did
Rushed to hospital and about week later I was diagnosed with a, an aggressive brain tumor
And then I had to have an operation to remove the brain tumor and I went back for the results, which weren’t that good and I had to go for a radiotherapy
And I spoke to a friend of mine, an incredible man, he’s a doctor, he, he’s retired, he said, why don’t you just look and find people in the world who still have this condition and still alive
So, that’s what I did
And I found some people, and it, and they all led to this guy Burzynski, but you mention Burzynski to uh people who work in the world of cancer, and it’s just like, they, you know, the barriers come up immediately Chemotherapy, radiotherapy, there’s no question about the fact that these things uh, are reflective and they are, save people’s lives, but that’s not what Hannah wants to do
(If I could go there, and take myself off there, I could) Burzynski’s work is, some people wouldn’t say it is gene-targeted therapy
Basically it’s peptides Peptides uh form amino acids in the body, and he’s found from his research that uh, certain people do not have these types of peptides, and uh especially people with certain types of cancer
What have you got to lose, and what’s the worst thing that can happen, if it doesn’t work ?
What’s the best thing that can happens ?
It saves her life
(laughter)
(I’ll give the ass a smack)
—————————————————————— video blog 13th of November 2011 (2:00)
——————————————————————
(Come sit down)
Good morning
Good morning
Good Morning
Why this week is such a big week is we go to see Hannah’s uh GP tomorrow, and we really need him on side with the treatment that Hannah’s going to have, and, and that could pose a bit of a challenge, because this treatment with Dr. Burzynski is not peer-reviewed, and what that means is that, with the NICE guidelines in this country, people are
very unlike to promote a uh treatment that isn’t peer-reviewed in the way that they would want it to be, but, we’re hoping that he will help and support is when we come back
Yeah
We will also go and see the oncologist this
Yes
which is gonna be a very interesting conversation because again, we want their support
It’s unlikely, very unlikely that they’ll give us the support that we need
because when Hannah comes back, she’s going to need MRI’s every month, and that’s just not gonna happen
We’re going to have to pay for that, but, we’ll let the pets do that of course
We’ll let you know next week, but this week is gone, but for now this is Team Hannah saying, Team Hannah, Team Hannah saying
Goodbye
Bye
Goodbye
That the wave that you do
(laugh)
I’m getting better at the wave
I don’t know about that, darling
—————————————————————— Royal Free Hospital London – December 2011 (3:19)
——————————————————————
You know, maybe I’ve been led down a garden path if you like, going to work with Burzynski, because you speak to any oncologist; which we have, lots of (?) specialists in this field and they say:
“No don’t do it”
“The guy’s a charlatan”
“You’re wasting your time”
“You’re wasting your money”
“It’s not going to work”
“There’s no clinical research”
But I feel in my heart that we’ve gotta do this
Not just because, you know, what is there left to do, but I actually think it’s going to work
Is it going to be a placebo effect, or is it actually going to be that what this guy does works ?
I’ve spoken to people who he, who he’s treated uh and they all can’t speak highly enough of him and of the clinic that we’re going to
So I’m going to film as much as I can of her journey, and she’s happy for me to film
And the clinic in Houston are happy for me to film whatever I want
So I’m going to
—————————————————————— video blog 10th of December 2011 (4:10)
——————————————————————
I don’t know how many blog videos we’ve done but we’ve done quite, quite a few and I think it’s amazing that we’ve got to this point
It doesn’t seem very long ago that we were sitting and talking about doing this, and within a few months we’ve raised all this money and we’re, my bags are packed
Your bags is almost packed
My bag is packed
And your bag is packed and we’re leaving tomorrow morning
I know there’s been a little bit of controversy
Yeah
about what we’re doing, but please, whatever you hear about it, we have done a lot of research into this
and we feel very confident about what we’re doing, were going to get very well looked after and we’ll be able to share all of that with you
So, next time you see us we’re going to be in
Houston
Texas
—————————————————————— Day One (4:52)
——————————————————————
Good morning Hannah
Good morning
And where are we ?
At the airport
So, you ready for this ?
I’m ready
Ready to start this next phase of our journey ?
Yeah
Ok
I’m really ready
I hurt, like I’ve got a massive headache
Yeah
That was pretty traumatic for you, wasn’t it ?
Yep
Pressure
Um, and getting through customs and everything like that
I felt like I was going to faint
Um, yeah, apart from that all good
Yeah ?
Yeah
And how’s it feel to be in Texas
It doesn’t feel any different at the moment
(laughing) (?) that’s a (?) Avis rent-a-car thing-a-ma-bob
—————————————————————— Day Two (5:37)
——————————————————————
(?) there you go
Right-o
Hello everyone
Hi
I’ve
Ok
I’ve got less hair than Pete
Are you looking in the camera or are you looking in here ?
I’m looking in here
Uh what are you looking there ?
(laughing)
Hello
Everyone
Today is going to be a very interesting day
We’re going to film, all that we can
We’re not going to meet Dr. Burzynski
We won’t be meeting him until the 19th, but we feel more than happy to be meeting his fellow doctors
What’d you reckon ?
You’re going to kill me in the car before you, we get there ?
Why
Because you’re trying to film and drive, and you don’t know where we’re going
Well spotted
Look
There it is
We’ve finally made it
So how’d you feel, that we’re finally here ?
Yeah
I feel good
Do you ?
Yeah
You ready ?
What are your expectations ?
I have no idea
Well, lets go and find out
Don’t have any expectations although I sure don’t want to be disappointed
——————————————————————
[Temperature]
(Close your lips please)
——————————————————————
[Eyesight]
(Ok
How about this one ?)
D
(Ok. We’ll have to go )
(laughing)
(I’m sorry)
Should I actually be able to ?
(#5)
Ok
P E C F D
(Ok. Good)
——————————————————————
So, was that bad ?
Uh, can’t see any of them
Oh, ok
—————————————————————— Meeting with Dr. Yi and Dr. Greg Burzynski (7:14)
——————————————————————
(?) we’ve reviewed your scans, your MRI, and we’re very aware of your case
Yes
We have permission to start you on the antineoplastons
Mhmm
which as you know are in the final stages of drug approval
Yeah
Dr. Yi is the oncologist on this case
Yeah
Likewise Dr. Rowkowski will be involved
Likewise I’ve an I’ll, I’ll be on the case
Ok. Great
And my father as you know is aware of what we’re doing here
Yeah
So as early as Wednesday we’ll be starting treatment
Mhmm
Tomorrow we can put in the catheter, and this is an external
—————————————————————— Day Three (7:44)
——————————————————————
What else is happening today ?
Look
Don’t want to think about it right now
Gonna have some sugar syrup put into me
(?) PET scan
Yeah
Which they inject sugar
I’d rather eat some
Yeah
Inject sugar and then you’re also having a, this Hickman line fitted
Yeah
Hopefully they’re gonna let me put on a white coat and come and be by your side
You can’t put on a white coat
You’re not a doctor
Well hopefully they’ll let me film
Well I don’t care about filming
I just care about you being there
—————————————————————— Hannah’s MRI scan review (8:15)
——————————————————————
So this is the one that was done in December, right ?
Yeah
This is the one that was done in December, and it has increased
‘Cause if I look at the, it’s more intense
Yeah
There’s more weight
Yeah
upon the image
Ok
Seen change in a month, right ?
Yeah
It’s in a month
That’s why
Less than a month
Yeah
That’s why kind of it’s a little scary
’cause it has
I mean it looks like it’s more prominent now
Yeah
—————————————————————— (8:46)
——————————————————————
after (?) this MRI scan, and you can see that the tumor is enhancing
She doesn’t know that
How will I tell her ?
Probably not, but she’s probably going to ask, and if the tumor grows like it’s, then you just saw in the scan, then how long does Hannah have left
—————————————————————— (9:06)
——————————————————————
Yeah
That would mean very
That’s pretty good
Ok
That’s good
That’s good enough
So any memory problems ?
Any speaking proc, speaking problems
No
No, not really
Ok
Spelling
Spelling, yes
Ever since surgery
So, what kind of problem ?
Like when you spell you miss letters ?
Yeah
Her spelling
Why, yeah
It’s just I’m jumbled
Ok
Yeah
—————————————————————— (9:28)
——————————————————————
Right
So uh were just getting ready now for Hannah to go in and have her PET scan and uh catheter Hickman line fitted and she’s just filling in the form
I’m not even going to ask her how she’s feeling or anything like that ’cause she’s feeling a little emotional
—————————————————————— (9:48)
——————————————————————
(?)
(laughing) You’ve just taken some , some Valium as well, have you ?
Not helping
This is like your biggest con, fear, isn’t it ?
I just show everyone what you’ve just done to my hand as well
—————————————————————— (10:04)
——————————————————————
What I’m doing is I’m creating a little tunnel under the skin
So I have to use just a little bit of pressure
So if I hurt you, you tell me
Ok ?
How are you feeling ?
Shhh
(laugh)
Well, you’ve done so well darling
I’m feeling really cold
Hungry ?
Yep
Alright
—————————————————————— (10:30)
——————————————————————
You look like you’re some sort of Holy Woman
People are going to come in here and bow to you
Did, did, did you feel that when it was going in and stuff ?
Not really
Little bit
It’s a little bit painful now ?
Yeah
It’s quite really painful now
Yeah
Well, it’s a massive tic, of something we have to get done
Yeah, I know
—————————————————————— Day Four (10:52)
——————————————————————
I’m feeling wrecked, absolutely wrecked
(laugh)
Well you had, bit of Valium yesterday
Yeah
And you had as much um local anesthetic
Yep
as he could give you he said, without knocking you out,
Yeah
but you were very, very brave yesterday, do you not think ?
I don’t think so
Why not ?
I wasn’t brave about the (canada ?) they put in here
—————————————————————— (11:23)
——————————————————————
Yes
What’d you think of
What, now what did you think of Judith Curran ?
Talk to
Oh, she’s great
( Skype on at the same time)
She’s like a mother
Yeah
Yeah
Is she ?
Yeah
(Yeah that’s fine. Whatever)
Yeah, she really does love you
( I’ve got something)
More than most
(?) all mom’s girlfriends
Mum uh Hannah just, I said, I just asked what she thought of you and she said she thought you’re like a mother
(Pete’s Mum)
Ohhh
I really do need you here
Oh dear
Well you have to have a partner mother at the moment
Yeah
But you need cuddles you mean ?
Yeah
Ohhh lots of cuddles
Oh no, no, no don’t
I asked
I’ll go
I need something dressed there
She needs help getting dressed
—————————————————————— (12:16)
——————————————————————
It’s, it’s, you know, it’s basically it’s uh, it’s a little roadway right into your bloodstream, so yeah, it has to stay very clean, and our thing is that we have to teach you
Yeah
how to do this
Yeah
—————————————————————— (12:32)
——————————————————————
You get 6 doses of antineoplaston a day,
Mhmm
they’re 4 hours apart
So, yeah, it’s almost 24 hours continuously
Mhmm
—————————————————————— (12:41)
——————————————————————
These are your bags
Ok. Thank you
and I’m going to wait until Dr. Barbera comes and talks to you about the pain medicine
Yeah
Then we will go ahead and hook up
Yes
because she did get the chest x-ray and everything’s a go
—————————————————————— (12:51)
——————————————————————
And everything goes in with a push and a twist
Ok
Quite simple
Alright
Yep
So obviously we’re gonna, when the fluid, we need to open up the clamp
Mhmm
And I always double, triple-check, make sure all the clamps are open
Yep
—————————————————————— (13:10)
——————————————————————
I’ve been on the treatment, I don’t know
It, it’s about
I don’t know
Half day ?
How are you feeling ?
It doesn’t hurt
Yeah
And this is what you’ve got to carry around with you
Yep
Now it’s like
It’s (?) my new bike
a baby
Something you have to have with you all of the time, and me with you all of the time
Oh (laugh) Oh god
I can cope with that
Ever since this all happened it seems like it’s just been one thing after another
Yeah
of obstacles
Yep
But we’ve got this far
Who woulda believed that we’d raise the money to get out here
Mhmm
which we have done, and now we’ve started on the treatment and I am pretty impressed with them there I must admit
Yeah
They’re really nice
—————————————————————— Day Five (13:52)
——————————————————————
Yeah
This is day, it’s day 4 yeah ?
Day 2 on the job
Day 5
Day 2 on the treatment
Mmmm I need a bit of a shave
um and um yep
You need a bit of a shave
So do I
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
—————————————————————— (14:08)
——————————————————————
Hi
So, can I get ya
You need a pen ?
Uh, yes please
So pull this back ?
Pull it back to undo the lock
Ok, pump is off, so your next step is to disconnect it
So push in and twist, clockwise
—————————————————————— (14:26)
——————————————————————
How’s your new friend ?
Yeah, she’s good
Yeah ?
Mmm
What have we done today ?
We’ve learnt more lessons
I’ve learnt more lessons about changing the, changing the pump
How did I do ?
Honey you did well
You think so ?
considering
Considering what ? (laughing) How challenged I am
No, considering how hard it actually is
That you did well
—————————————————————— Day Ten (14:54) Meeting with Dr. Yi and Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski and
——————————————————————
Yeah, I think so far where we are we have been very impressed with all we’ve seen
Thank you very much
It looks like (?) we should not (?)
a pretty traumatic day because uh we met with Dr. Burzynskibut he didn’t give us the sort of news that we wanted uh because he’s concerned that the treatment may be enhancing uh and he wants us to stay here until at least um Hannah’s had one month on the treatment and to do MRI and see what’s going on
We can stay here
That’s the most important thing
Just imagine if we had to go home
You know ?
I know you’re tired of all this, you know, and its hard work, and it’s, you know ?
—————————————————————— Day Twelve (15:46)
——————————————————————
So the last time we kind of filmed was when we were with Dr. Burzynski and him saying do we want to stay and that
Yep
And how, how do you feel about that now ?
Yeah, i’ve got my head ’round it
Do you have faith in him and ?
Yeah, again I know that I’m in the best hands
—————————————————————— Pete’s colleague Dr. Hilary Jones appears on ‘Daybreak’ morning TV show in the UK (16:04)
——————————————————————
Are there question marks for you with regards to going over there to this particular clinic ?
I think what we have to bare in mind is that uh the treatment that, that Dr. Burzynski is offering is, is very uh experimental
It’s pioneering research, and pioneers in medicine tend to get a rough ride to begin with, and uh he hasn’t uh uh published the numbers of people in trials that convince the established authorities that his treatment uh works
It’s very interesting treatment
We’ve known about these peptides which can switch uh tumor genes on or off, and this is a different approach to these kind of tumors, that’s uh over and above oncology, chemotherapy, radiotherapy
Um, his results um, if you look at them um, sometimes appear extraordinary in some cases um but of course not in all cases
So it’s very difficult to evaluate, how effective it is
I I researched it pretty carefully myself because I have a friend there at the moment with his partner and the reports I’m getting back are they’re getting excellent treatment, excellent support, very impressed
This is somebody who, who knows a lot about medicine
Very impressed with what’s going on there
Um, we need to keep an open mind
Yes
Um it’s unfortunate it costs so much money but pioneering treatment does, and I really hope, that if you go that route that it works out for you
I really hope
Thank you
Indeed
—————————————————————— (17:20)
——————————————————————
So, that was uh, I didn’t know uh he was doing that, and actually the weird thing was that the day before I had actually contacted him just to say that we were doing really well
Yeah
But poor old Hilary was so caught up in that yesterday
On Twitter, I mean it was just nonstop
People just saying
“Burzynski’s a fraud”
Um, but we certainly don’t feel that he’s a fraud, do we ?
No
No
I get the impression that he’s 100% genuine
—————————————————————— 12/25/2011 – Christmas Day (17:50)
——————————————————————
Hello there
Hi. How are you today ?
We’re doing ok
Documenting that ?
Um yeah I’m documenting
(laughing)
everything
That’s against the rules
Really ? Oh dear
(? again)
Collecting evidence ?
Yeah, I am
We’re gonna sue
We’re gonna, we’re gonna sue a few people
(laughing)
That’s what you love to do in America, right ?
—————————————————————— (18:10)
——————————————————————
So same symptoms ?
Yeah
The flu symptoms
Mhmm
Yeah. Ok. How’s your breathing ?
The same
That was, really bad yesterday, wasn’t it ?
Yeah
Ok. Um, any headache ?
Yep
Ok. And you said you had, are they tremors or are they like shakes, like chills ?
Yeah, chills
Chills, ok
But, you know, like I couldn’t stop
Ok.
myself
It was just
Yeah
Ok. So it was un, uncontrollable ?
Yeah
Ok
—————————————————————— (18:41)
——————————————————————
This is how we spent Christmas Day, in the Burzynski Clinic
With the lovely Monica
Of course
And
How (?) would you have it any other way
And the Christmas songs
Hey (mouthing words to song)
—————————————————————— (19:04)
——————————————————————
We went to the clinic this morning, and she was shivering all night, fever
So she’s off the antineoplastons for the day, and she’s just basically in bed now, just absolutely exhausted, and now she’s got a little bit of swelling on the back of her head, which obviously is a ca, cause for concern when you’ve got a uh, a brain tumor
—————————————————————— Day Eighteen (19:04)
—————————————————————— Hannah was back on treatment yesterday, and last night her temperature went up to 102
So I phoned uh the clinic, and they said take her off the medication, the anti, antineoplastons
So I took her off
Her temperature came down
Then it went up again, and then we went back to the hospital today, back to the clinic, and they’re giving her a much smaller dose um and she’s on much smaller dose and she’s just come back, and she’s just exhausted
And she, I can see she’s just so close to breaking, which is cracking completely
(Christmas tree)
—————————————————————— (20:07)
——————————————————————
um and I’m just, got to the point where I can’t, I’m just, don’t know what to do
—————————————————————— Day Twenty (20:22)
——————————————————————
Well the last week has been very up and down
Um I have come off the dose
Gone back on it
Come
Come off it
back on
Yeah, and then come back off it again um, for several reasons: Fever, um shaking, chills, fever, and bacterial infection, um viral infection, every infection, um and then ended up with me having to go to E.R., the Emergency Room
Well at that point I was really fearing the worst
Mhmm
Because you’d a scan when we got out of here, right ?
Mhmm
and the scan definitely showed some tumor growth
Mhmm
um and I was thinking, what 2 and 1/2 weeks later from that
Yeah
That we were going back in the hospital
Mhmm
Because the tumor had gotten bigger
Yep
What has this whole experience like for you at the moment
Oh it’s just surreal
I just, I can’t explain it
It’s just surreal, to me
What, like its not happening to you ?
Yeah
You did actually said to me yesterday in the hospital, you said:
“I’m at my wits end”
“I don’t feel I can take anymore”
Yep
And what about today ? (laugh)
Well, I reckon I’ve been, I’ve just realized I’ve got to get on with it again
—————————————————————— Day Twenty-Two (21:53)
——————————————————————
So it’s, January the 1st, 2012, and we haven’t really got the,
We haven’t got off to a great start, have we ?
No
Why ?
Because I’ve had a fever
Uh you, when did you start, feeling feverish ?
In the middle of the night ?
Yeah. Yeah
And your temperature went up to 102
Yeah
What Dr. Burzynski thinks you, why you’re having a fever
you’ve either still got some flu-like symptoms or it could be the, the tumor actually breaking down
We’ve also got some problems with our pump this morning
(So what do you think ?)
Yeah, it’s not closing again
(And then you can also see the)
Uh, there it goes
(?)
But
It ain’t gonna stay that way
I don’t think it’s going to stay closed
Huh, what’d you think about that ?
(unintelligible)
(? get it fixed)
(and this looks like it’s ?)
(? fix ?)
Love you
—————————————————————— (23:09)
——————————————————————
The last time we saw you, you felt like you were completely drunk
Yeah
And you had double vision
Mhmm
So,then what, ended up, happening ?
Well, one of the nurses, kindly, pointed out
She said: “What have you taken ?”
That is where we recognized it was an anti-seizure drug, that I hadn’t taken before
And how do you feel now ?
I feel ok
I feel a but shaky
Yeah
I just have to (?) something to eat
Um, I’m just so tired
—————————————————————— (23:50)
——————————————————————
Hi, I’m Pete Cohen
Uh you might recognize me
Oh god
from morning television in the
Yeah
U.K.
Nobody recognizes you anymore
—————————————————————— (23:58)
——————————————————————
You should keep your fingers above the little
Ok
guard thing, yeah, and try to hold this
I’ve done it
as straight as you can
Ok. I’ve done it there Gary
and put some support
Yeah
on it
In there
and then you twist them down
Easier said than done (?)
I know
You can give it much more of a whack and you can u, use the other end as well
Ok
No, like this
(laughing)
Got no chance
Use the other end
(?) better
Ok. Thank you
(laughing)
You’re welcome
There you go
There you go (?)
There you go
—————————————————————— Day Thirty-Eight (24:33)
——————————————————————
I’ve never had to take care of anyone, the way I’m kind of having to take care of Hannah, and its just constant, and I get stressed around her, which isn’t fair, you know
She’s now got another temperature
She’s got a throat infection
Her temperatures up, uh and uh if it goes up over 102, it’s 101.8
If it goes up over 102 she’s got to come off of the treatment again um, oh, just, just feels like non-stop, you know
Cooking, and changing the bags
I’ve been into this, the clinic 3 times today
Taking her blood
Taking her back, get supplies
Take her back there
—————————————————————— (25:24)
——————————————————————
I’ve got a fever
It was over 102 last night
Yep. And
I’ve got antibiotics
Which you’ve been on for how many days ?
3 days
And we’re off the treatment
So, all in all
But you feel bad because you just want to be on the treatment, and just keep coming off
It’s just
How does that make you feel ?
Just, I don’t know, angry
Disappointed
Pointless
What you mean like
The while things pointless
Yeah
because you can’t stand
I just hope one day we can look back at this and laugh
Yeah
and just think: “We beat that”
because you couldn’t be doing anymore than what you’re doing
You know ?
You really couldn’t
Should really get a few of your friends to come over
Yeah
’cause you must be a bit bored of me
(laughing). No
C’mon, I’ve been really annoying
How grumpy was I yesterday ?
(laughing)
on a scale of 1 to 10 ?
(laughing)
I don’t know
C’mon
6
Really ?
Yeah
—————————————————————— Day Forty-Two (26:54)
——————————————————————
It’s 6 o’clock in the morning, and Hannah is lying here
Her temperature went up to the highest I’ve ever seen a temperature, on the thermometer
Where is the thermometer ?
Up to 104
I’m gonna just, I’m just trying to cool her down
I just phoned the doctor on-call and she said take some ibuprofen which Hannah has, and the result is ?
It’s come down a bit
Where is it ?
There it is
102.5
Well you’d think it’d come down
My god you’re so hot
I can’t believe how hot that is, thats got
Unbelievable
—————————————————————— (27:50)
—————————————————————— Hannah
Show me what’s going on
This all came up
When did you notice this ?
Yesterday afternoon, but its got worse since then
Yeah, lift up a bit higher if you can
Just zoom in on that
Yep
So it’s just one thing after another at the moment, isn’t it ?
Aye ?
Yes
Open your hands a little bit
Yeah (?)
And obviously we’re off, treatment at the moment
Mhmm
And we’re just waiting for who ?
Dr. Popper
What do you think he’s going to have to say ?
Mmm I don’t know
Ok
Ok, bye
—————————————————————— Day Forty-Four (28:35)
——————————————————————
Who um gave it a name ?
I sent a picture of it to Dr. B and he came back and said I think that’s what it is, and I looked into it and could see that that’s exactly what it is
Well does it bother you or does it just ?
No, it does
Like
Yeah
And itch ?
In some cases
Oh I’m sorry
Especially under the dressing
(?) Hannah had a fever 104 on Friday night
104 ?
103.9 I should, if I’m being absolutely, precise
So I think it’s brought this out
I think you can, you can say 104
—————————————————————— (28:50)
——————————————————————
So, we’re now going to have the MRI that we were going to have on Wednesday
We’re going to have it today
(laughing)
—————————————————————— 1/23/2012 MRI (29:29)
——————————————————————
This is one that was just done today ?
2012 Jan 23
Acq Tim: 12:13:09
955000
320 x 230
Today
2011 Dec 29
Acq Tim: 14:50:12
497500
256 x 192
Today
So the difference is that you can see there
How would you describe the differences between
and what you see here ?
Well 1st of all the size of the tumor is less, and um, if you see the actual, the solid enhancing part of the tumor
This is how it looks now
So from that you can see that it’s definitely, something definitely is going on
It’s changing
Yes
There’s no question about that
The size is less
The intensity of the enhancement is less
So wha, whe, whe, when you see something like this, wha, what does that show you ?
Well, certainly the, we see that the tumor’s most likely working, as the tumor is showing less enhancement, meaning less activity
Yeah
And the tumor’s by effect smaller
Yeah
So, ideally the next scan should be better
So we, we’re definitely going in the right direction
That’s, great
That’s for sure, and it’s brilliant that uh we’re going home on, on
On a high note
On a high note
Especially after our trials and tribulations
So
Certainly
—————————————————————— (30:47)
—————————————————————— Hannah’s tumor has started to shrink, and she doesn’t know
She doesn’t know that
So I’m going to go in the house
I think she’s still asleep, and give her the good news
(?)
Hannah
Can we go home ?
Can we go home ?
Guess what ?
We can go home ?
Yeah
Yea !
And guess what ?
Guess what
Your tumor started shrinking
Yea !
It shrunk by at least 10%
Let me just give you a kiss
Thank you
It’s ok
It’s ok
—————————————————————— (31:30)
——————————————————————
Hi Daddy
Hello, how are you ?
Yeah, I’m sorry for ringing so late
That’s alright
Um but I’m ringing with really, really good news
Good, that’s what I wanna hear
Go on you tell
No, you tell him
I don’t think I can
(Go on ?)
(? tell me ?)
Um
C’mon
my tumor
Yeah
has already shrunk by 10%
You’re f’n ‘ell man
F’
(?)
That is absolute, amazing
And considering I haven’t been on the treatment for
You’ve been on the dose, off the dose, and on it
F’n ‘ell
What
When you get started on the
F’n ‘ell man
(laughing)
I’m glad you phoned me
Yeah, you’re the 1st person I called, obviously
—————————————————————— (32:22)
——————————————————————
So what can you believe we’ve now been here for one month
Yes
And we’re going now
What are we going in to have done ?
Hopefully, be discharged
And are you pleased with the progress you’ve made ?
Yeah
It’s been up and down
Yeah it’s been up and down
(Trip, trip ?)
You look like a Hollywood star
(laughing)
Not many Hollywood stars have a backpack like this though
Yeah but it was also a week ago
I don’t know how long ago that was where you couldn’t even
What ?
What ?
In you go
In I go
Hi
We can’t stay away
(laugh)
We’re getting discharged now
Oh really ?
I think so
Well that’s wonderful
Yeah
Well yeah, oh we, we don’t wanna go
Right turn mate
Which floor ?
2nd floor
Oh, you’re still filming
Yeah, I just, you know, I mean, you know, why not ?
I haven’t filmed all of this
We’re going up
This was great when I was feeling really sick, ’cause it
Seems like we’ve spent a lifetime together, we used to go to the 4th floor
(laugh)
(Ok)
Hi
Ohhh
Hello
Hello
Hi
Hi
Hi everyone
Hello
Hello
Um Hannah and I are leaving on Friday
What’s going to be your overriding memory of us ?
No
What are we gonna do ?
Hey
Are you going to miss us ?
What are we gonna do ?
Of course
Peace and love
(Remind me, is Hannah ?)
Why don’t you stay
(?) who’s your favorite, because you remember we said we were gonna say
(laughing)
‘Cause, ’cause we can o, we can only take one of ’em home, and who’s it gonna be ?
(? the rash (?) dude)
(laughing)
Well you can only take one attribute from each person, what would it be ?
I’m going to take Ashley home
(laughing)
Really ? Why ?
Yes, I like that
Because she’s, because she has the same condition ?
Yep
(laughing)
Because she can look after
Very good
(laughing)
So Rick you were told I was a big shot
Yes, going to film everything so
(Who knows ?)
you have to watch out
So, c’mon, what, what point in your head did you think: “My god this guy’s an absolute idiot”
(laughing)
—————————————————————— Day Forty-Seven (34:55)
——————————————————————
This, this December 29
This is January 27
Here we have the tumor, visible previously
And we have now
Certainly, outside diameters have decreased
Mhmm
So to some extent, but also the, the intensity of the enhancement, has decreased
Mhmm
As you can see this was much brighter before, now is less
Which means that the tumor is decreasing and it’s uh losing its activity at the same time
Mhmm
Which is a good news
But, again, we are not at the remission
This is called Stable Disease
Stabilization
Mhmm
Probably next time we see this is shrinking more and this wide band is getting thinner, and thinner, and finally
Mhmm
it should disappear
So that’s what you should be looking for
Ok
—————————————————————— (35:43)
——————————————————————
There’s some hair on the camera
Well it’s not mine
It’s definitely not mine
Hmmm
Um
No
I’m gonna start
Ok
(laughing)
Go on then
Ok
So it’s June 2012, and we have been back for approximately 6 months from the, America, and generally it’s all going well
I’ve had about 3 scans since I have been back, and they’ve all looked fairly positive
I think they’ve looked more than positive but yeah, go on
Carry on
(laughing)
Um, yeah, so the tumor, well the enhancing part of the tumor is getting smaller
Basically there’s such a small little part left that I’m sure when you watch this you’ll be able to see some images so people can see your scans
December 7th 2011 scan
Yeah, mhmm
March 21st 2012 scan
and we know that if Hannah hadn’t had this treatment, with the type of tumor that she had
May 2nd 2012 scan
she might already be dead, or she probably wouldn’t be here
June 13th 2011 scan
Yeah
much longer
July 29 2012 scan
She is very much alive at this point in time
Yeah
And what’d you think about all this controversy, because the controversy around what we’re doing, and it’s just, just
I can’t believe it personally
I find it very, very hard the, the hatred and the skepticism, of, um, what Hannah’s doing
What, what, what’s that like for you ?
Well, as I, as I’ve always said along the way, you know, any of the skeptics, what would they do, if they were in my position ?
Would they want to die in 3 to 5 years or ?
Probably less than that
Uh (both)
And that’s a horrible thought
Um
Yeah, uh everyone has a, has a right to be sceptic and everyone has a right to their own opinion
Yeah, they do
Um, and, but the funny thing about people’s opinions is, opinions are often based on, what they’ve heard
Yeah
or what someone hasn’t done, whereas uh, we spent 7 weeks at the Burzynski Clinic uh
And we saw everything
We saw everything
We spent time with this man um, and I tell you from my, from, from, I think from both, I can maybe speak for you hey ?, but uh
(laughing)
he’s one of the most honest, kindest people
Yeah, he is
‘Cause I, I said to you, the other day, about making this film, and you said: “Even if I was going to die tomorrow, I would still want this to be made”
Yeah
You remember saying that ?
Yeah
What, what, why did you say that ?
Why ?
Because, it might give other people a shake up
Mhmm
Yeah
Yeah, because uh, yeah
Why did we make this ?
Well I made this because I thought it was a journey that was well worth documenting
(?)
and maybe could help other people, and maybe help people realize there are other options, apart from the conventional treatment for cancer, and to inspire people
I hope you’re inspired by Hannah’s story because she’s an amazing, she’s a, honestly she’s annoying sometimes
(laugh)
but not very often
So are you. Yep
She has such a desire to live, uh and to enjoy her life, and I think
I don’t know, if there’s anything else that we
Ok, that’s enough for now
Hannah’s most recent scan confirmed she has now had a complete response to the treatment
—————————————————————— (39:35)
—————————————————————— Special thanks to
Bacon, Lesley
Bradley, Jeremy and Irene
Cank, Elizabeth
Cohen, Judith and David
Gooden, Lindley
Jones, Dr. Hilary
Levitt, Chris and Gina
Martinez, Dr. Juan
Merola, Eric
Newman, Ofir
Norouzi, Minou
Ramsey, Anna
Rowkowski, Dr. Bob
White, Gemma
Hannah Bradley’s GP The Eagle radio station
—————————————————————— (39:40)
—————————————————————— Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski
and all the staff at the Burzynski Clinic
—————————————————————— (39:48)
—————————————————————— camera Pete Cohen
additional camera Lindley Gooden
editor Jamie Lowe
—————————————————————— (39:54)
—————————————————————— A film by Jamie Lowe & Pete Cohen
—————————————————————— (40:00)
——————————————————————
This film is dedicated to all the people who donated their time and energy to raise funds to save Hannah’s life
—————————————————————— (40:08)
——————————————————————
To follow the progress of Hannah’s recovery and find out more about the treatment she received please visit: http://www.teamhannah.com/blog
====================================== [15] – 2/17/2012 – Friday – REAL LIFE – ‘I’ll try anything to beat brain cancer’
—————————————————————— http://m.gulfnews.com/i-ll-try-anything-to-beat-brain-cancer-1.981203
====================================== Team Hannah Blog (2:46) 4/1/2013 – Posted by Hannah
======================================
(laughing) Don’t
‘Cause you’ll put this bit in
Promise ?
Yeah
Ok
(laugh) Ok, so, it’s April the 1st and it’s 2 years on since I had my operation and but ? obviously is out
So, I just wanted to (laugh)
Start again
Start again
Start again
Start again
Ok
Ok
I don’t believe you
I have
Start today again
(laugh) I don’t believe you
It didn’t go “beep beep”
Because it’s on silent
(laugh) Do you think that I’m an idiot ?
No
(laugh)
Ok
3 2 1 go
Hi there um it’s (laugh) the, the 1st of April and it’s 2 years on since I had my operation and I’m pleased to tell you that I’m obviously still here, and um that’s thanks to you guys and thanks to me I suppose from, for fighting so hard for my life
And what, and what have you been up to then ?
I have been up to um just resting a lot and uh making up new recipes uh
Your next book
Yeah, for my next book and
Yeah, that’s pretty much it
And when are you thinking you might be able to come off the treatment ?
June
End of May
June
I have a scan in a couple of weeks and we’ll update you after that
And what will that be like, coming off the treatment ?
Oh, it’ll be amazing
Yeah, amazing
So you won’t be walking around with
No
this fellow here ?
No
Ok
Is there anything else you’d like to say ?
Um, just love to you all
Oh
The wave
—————————————————————— Team Hannah Blog (3:34) 3/2/2013 – Posted by Hannah
======================================
Hi
This is the Team Hannah blog and it is the 3rd of March and Peter is actually filming me today
He’s not there, where he normally is
Yeah
Exactly
So I’m on my own
Flying solo
Um I’d just like to say how well I’m doing and my last
Ohhh went a bit northern then
My last scan um was mid-February and it showed no enhancing tumor
So that’s really good
Um I’ve just got um a really cystic area in my head
So it looks like they’ve predicted June me me to be off the treatment
So, fingers crossed for June
What will that be like to, to come off the treatment ?
Um, yeah, it will be
The treatment is so uh, restricting I would say
Yeah, it would be good to come off
And what else have you been up to ?
I have been (holding up Team Hannah Cookbook) selling lots of copies,
Yeah
and, and,
the other book a little bit
I know that you mentioned in the last blog, but just
What, what’s the book about ?
Well it’s low-carb recipes and I’ve
Been on the radio
I did a radio
promoting it and um it’s great for anyone who wants to cut out sugar
to lose weight and decrease their, and what, decrease their
Risk
Yeah, risk of getting disease
Yeah, ’cause we saw a doctor in America, Dr. Rowkowski
and he, and one of the things he said to you was you really need to cut sugar out of your diet
to
sugar is what he said
Yeah
Um, and you’ve been getting a lot of people that
trying your recipes and taking photos
Yeah
picking up
on Facebook on Pete’s favorite page
to cook something from the book
put them up on the
page as well
And um where can people find out about your book
Um just slide over to, to Hannah Cookbook and you will find it there
And your blog as well, yeah ?
Yeah
So, I think we’re done
I just want to say there’s an airplane going overhead
Thank you to everyone whose supported us
it seems a lot of, a lot of film
And why are you laughing
Pajamas
pajamas
I didn’t quite
yep
What are those
(laughing)
This bench has seen a lot of action
Yeah, it has
Video action, that is
(laughing)
And we’re very thankful to everyone
Yeah
Thank you, yeah, again
Yeah
We try and do one after next scan
Big wave, please
Bye bye
Bye
====================================== Sapphire Sings For Team Hannah
1/3/2012 – Posted (3:00)
====================================== (Last) Christmas, I gave you my heart
The very next day, you gave it away
This year, to save me from tears
I’ll give it to someone special
Once bitten, and twice shy
I keep my distance, but you catch my eye
Tell me baby, do you recognize me ?
Well, it’s been a year, it does not surprise me
Happy Christmas, I wrapped it up and sent it
With a note saying, “I love you”, I meant it
Now I know, what a fool I’ve been
But if you kiss me now, I know you’d fool me again
Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
The very next day, you
—————————————————————— (1:04)
——————————————————————
Ok Sapphire, all I have to say is “Thank you, thank you, thank you
You have compiled a CD, um, in aid of Help for Hannah, and you have had quite a lot of sales so far, and you have got a beautiful voice, and I’m sure you’ll go very, very, very far, but “Thank you”, and this is just a little “Thank you” for you, but obviously other people are going to hear it Thank you Love you
Bye
Did you
Sorry
Did she also, sing this yesterday, uh, somewhere?
Yeah, she sung it at Aldershot uh Football Club
Again, so Aldershot was playing football against another team
Plymouth, yeah
Plymouth
And she sang it for everyone ?
Yeah
And they raised some money for you ?
Yep
Yes, so this has been a big “Thank you” from both of us (laughing)
Let’s, let’s play out a bit more of that song
Ok
‘Cause we love this song
It’s off
Uh yep, it’s my favorite Christmas song
It’s the only Christmas song
(gave it away)
we can hear when it’s not Christmas This year, to save me from tears
I’ll give it to someone special
A crowded room, friends with tired eyes
I’m hiding from you, and your soul of ice
My god I thought you were someone to rely on
Me ? I guess I was a shoulder to cry on
A face on a lover with a fire in his heart
A man undercover but you tore me apart
Now I’ve found a real
Thank you so much
——————————————————————
An Update For You
10/21/2011 – Posted
A Message From Pete About Team Hannah (3:07)
A MESSAGE FROM PETE
Hi it’s Pete Cohen and I just wanted to share something with you
Uh in February this year my girlfriend was diagnosed with a, with a brain tumor and when this happened it really obviously rocked our world
You know, everything seemed to be ok
Everything was great in life
And then something happened, and everything changed
And I don’t know whether anything like that has ever happened to you
But these things happen don’t they
And when they happen they really test you
They really challenge you
They, it’s very easy
It made me question lots of things
It made me think to myself, well, you know, what, is life, really fair ?
You know, should this happen to such a young person ?
These things do happen
And it really puts us in a position where it questions what we have
What we have to deal with such difficult circumstances
And I’ve definitely found things in myself that I didn’t know wa was there, you know, resolve, compassion, determination just to, to keep going
And this is the thing human beings we all have this kind of, we all have something else don’t we
All, we all have something more than our stress, and our worry, and our anxiety
We have a our true nature I think can overcome so much, of what life throws at us
You know, obviously we can’t overcome, everything
But what I really wanted to share with you is something that I’ve been so taken aback with, and that’s the beautiful nature of human beings, because we’re trying to take my girlfriend over to America to be treated over there, and we’re having to raise a considerable sum of money, and we’ve actually had to ask people, for help
Now that’s something that’s a bit alien to me, is to ask people and say, you know, can you help me, can you help us
Maybe that’s an insecurity that I have
Bur we’ve asked for help and it’s been amazing to see people all over the world spread the world, donate some money
And I’ve been so touched by that
It’s so life affirming
It so, it gives us such great strength
Any my girlfriend and I have been
so touched by that
So what’s my point here ?
Recognize how important it is for all of us to support each other
Recognize how important it is to affirm each other
You know, that’s one of the most important human needs we all have;
affirmation, it’s the fact that, to take the time to recognize each other
Hello
How are you
I care for you
So, thank you so much for watching this, and if you want to help us out please just uh visit the web-site we’ve put together for Hannah
It’s just called Team Hannah . com, and on there you can see a little more about Hannah and what’s happened to her, and the treatment we’re looking for her to have, in America
So, I hope you all have a great day and please, take the time to be there for other people, to care for other people, because that’s what makes this world great
Thanks for watching
Bye, bye
======================================
v=p5tAeYsNOZQ?rel=0
======================================
——————————————————————
Hannah’s message [3]
——————————————————————
(3:02)
——————————————————————
Ok
So what’s your name ?
I’m Hannah Bradley, and I’m 27 years old, and I come from North Hampton
And what happened to you ?
I had a seizure in middle of the night and my partner tells me I was rushed to hospital
That was in February 2011
And from there I had lots and lots of tests, and they decided that I had a brain tumor, and they were going to operate, and they successfully operated on the 1st of April, 2011, and they, the biopsy went off to be um checked
I found out that I had a grade 3 tumor
I then, under, underwent a, I had a 6 week course of radiotherapy, and that left me with no hair, and can’t remember what else (laugh)
And um that I went under another MRI scan 6 weeks after radiotherapy and we, that again wasn’t particularly good news, and we found out that there was still remnants of the tumor, and the future for me is very uncertain
So what, what are you looking for ?
What are you looking to do ?
Um, I, sorry
What do you want Hannah ?
What is it you’re looking for ?
Um, mainly I, um, I can’t
You just want to live, right ?
Yeah
So what are you asking for ?
What, what, what do you need ?
I um, I need people to raise money, for, uh, my treatment
I’m looking to going to America because there are things that they can offer me here on the NHS or locally (?) is very, very limited, and there’s a doctor in Houston, and he’s able to help
So you want some help in raising some money, yeah ?
Yeah, it’s completely out of our reach to raise that much money, and it’s, I’d like help to raise the money
——————————————————————
9/17/2012
Monday, 17 September 2012 07:23 | Written by Administrator
Hannah Bradley
Hannah’s amazing story, fighting and winning over her Brain tumor (Anaplastic Astrocytoma) is available on her support site
Team Hannah
There are more videos by Pete and Hannah, documenting her fight and the Burzynski Clinic
======================================
When I mentioned Ben and Laura Hymas to Bob Blaskiewicz during the Saturday Google+ Hangout, and suggested that I should compare it to the patient stories he “embellishes”, he suggested I review his patient stories instead
So what am I doing ?
I’m reviewing the patient story of Laura Hymas
However, my goal is to provide a perspective of her mood, health, treatment, and support network, so that readers can get an idea of what someone with cancer; who does not yet know that they have cancer, may be experiencing, so if they note similar experiences or symptoms in themselves or others, they will know that they most likely should seek professional medical assistance, and also be able to use it to compare to other “patient stories”
Laura Hymas: Kent, United Kingdom
Ben: fiancée
Jacob: son
—————————————————————— (I will be doing a little data clean-up)
Note how I do NOT “embellish” Laura’s story by adding extemporaneous commentary like Bob Blaskiewicz
—————————————————————— 2005 – Laura met Ben: knew instantly wanted to start family with him []
When first met Laura 3 years ago beautiful, bright and energetic girl [2]
loyal, kind hearted and has a smile so infectious that it can light up any room [2]
——————————————————————
started planning to marry and grow family [2]
======================================
====================================== MOOD
======================================
====================================== 1/2009 – Laura pregnant[]
a) delighted to be having a baby but pregnancy wasn’t easy []
b) suffered terrible morning sickness so severe had to be admitted to hospital []
—————————————————————— 4/2009 – morning sickness stopped at 16 weeks, from then on felt exhausted []
—————————————————————— 9/2009 – Jacob born[] [2] []
9/2009 – []
a) felt like happiest woman in the world
b) began planning to marry and grow family
c) adored being a mum []
d) knew wasn’t depression because felt so happy being a mum []
—————————————————————— 9/2009 – 12/2010 – []
a) felt never fully recovered after the birth and over 15 month period
b) certain wasn’t depressed
c) was so happy but exhausted all the time
d) convinced there was something wrong and so frustrating not knowing what
e) so tired even good nights sleep couldn’t get up in the morning to take care of Jacob when Ben went to work; stay in pajamas all day
f) at wits end
g) causing a lot of stress at home
—————————————————————— 5/27/2010 – []
a) felt like luckiest woman alive []
b)son Jacob just celebrated 1st birthday and she and fiance Ben were busy planning wedding[]
—————————————————————— 10/2010 – frustrating as kept wondering if was imagining it [[
—————————————————————— 12/24/2010 – []
a) no one expected anything serious so I just popped along with Jacob []
b) totally unprepared for what doctor said []
c) When doctors dropped their bombshell, just broke down []
d) happiness was shattered
e) thought of Jacob not having me here is heartbreaking []
f) will do anything to see him grow up and determined to beat this []
g) can’t accept going to die []
h) was in pieces []
i) immediately rang mum, Vanessa, who hurried to hospital to comfort her []
j) strange relief to know hadn’t imagined all symptoms, never expected something so terrible []
k) reassured when read stories saying people did live normal lives with this sort of tumour []
l) huge relief []
—————————————————————— 12/2010
a) felt couldn’t accept there were no other options []
b) felt confident []
c) so angry but had no choice []
—————————————————————— 2/2011 – []
a) Being unable to care for son made feel so depressed
b) felt like life was slipping away
c) No words can describe how much this news and period of time affected us as a family
—————————————————————— 4/2011 – []
a) had devastating effect on her as young mum, and affected every part of lives because at moment cannot enjoy time and plan future like any other normal young family []
b) everyone was in for further shock []
c) left reeling when doctors said tumour had grown rapidly []
d) couldn’t believe it []
—————————————————————— 5/27/2011 – confident will get there and beat this [9]
—————————————————————— 6/2011
a) felt very confident, almost empowered []
b) Given situation felt had nothing to lose []
c) astounded by generosity and kindness of general public []
—————————————————————— LAURAS TUMOUR [1]
—————————————————————— news hit very hard and also devastated her family and friends [1]
Until something like this happens, you dont realise how much of an effect it has [1]
fun loving girl who’s taken to motherhood like a duck to water, son is so lucky to have her because she always puts him first [1]
illness crept up slowly and was affecting long before diagnosis because it was eating away at health and energy which was so frustrating for when wanted to be energetic mum doing loads of things with Jacob [1]
awful diagnosis had positive and negative effect, fact now knows what was wrong is huge relief because knew deep down something was wrong, but its awful news at same time [1]
—————————————————————— 6/27/2011 – Anyone who has been or is going through a life threatening illness will understand power of positivity and support network of friends and family [15]
—————————————————————— faces race against time to travel to US for treatment she hopes will save her life []
—————————————————————— 7/8/2011 – [18]
helped stay positive and strong as a family even in difficult times [18]
worried how long it would take before could start treatment [18]
has been so strong and positive throughout journey, im so proud of her for being such an amazing fiancee and an amazing mum to Jacob – not a day goes by where she doesnt make us smile and keep our home life normal for Jacob at this important time in our little mans life…a really special person [18]
—————————————————————— 7/28/2011 – had agonising wait for results on Thursday
—————————————————————— 8/3/2011 – [21]
MIXTURE OF FEELINGS THIS MORNING [21]
never happy with just sitting around [21]
spent months researching all kinds of brain tumour treatment protocols looking for most successful, non harmful type of treatment currently available in the world and even speaking to past patients about their experiences, led us to front door of controversial Dr. Burzynski’s clinic in Houston this morning…somewhere that gives us all a bit of Hope [21]
Driving to clinic we were nervous about how today would be but as soon as we walked through the door we were met with friendly faces and felt instantly at ease [21]
left clinic feeling relaxed, like were in right place and the day had gone great, been prescribed treatment she wanted and with any luck will be having 1st dose this Friday [21]
—————————————————————— 8/8/2011 – [3]
a) tiredness
b) like having another baby!
c) it’s really worth it [3]
—————————————————————— 8/8/2011 – future was still very uncertain [55]
at times a whirlwind, extremely stressful [55]
—————————————————————— 10/2011 – [10]
a) times when feel like giving up [10]
b) only have to look at Ben and Jacob to know life’s worth fighting for [10]
c) determined to give treatment my best shot [10]
—————————————————————— 1/10/2012
bit of a difficult week this week, hadn’t been sleeping well due to MRI scan booked [40]
After such good result last time where tumour shrank so much were feeling so positive for few weeks after, as next scan gets closer start to worry about silly things, every time has bad day where feels exhausted, worry tumour suddenly started to grow again [40]
next day have really good day…. might have epileptic seizure, though has a LOT less of them now and aren’t as strong still worry means tumour growth [40]
get to few days before next scan even sillier things start to cross mind like “I’ve eaten lots of chocolate and had a few KFC’s since last scan was my diet really bad and hasthat made it grow!?!” [40]
all sorts of worries will go through mind at this point, like anyone else in this situation will understand [40]
trying to describe just other day what its like being told has malignant brain cancer [40]
(still hate those words) [40]
its impossible to describe but so awful makes you feel like you’re character in film “Saw” [40]
Like someone has put time bomb inside your head, it will grow fast and more it grows you will slowly become more disabled, doctors tell us that current available medicines can only slow it down..there are never any survivors 12-14 months (1 year – 1 year 2 months) from diagnosis is prognosis [40]
Eventually it will win, and you will lose the fight [40]
Sometimes in morning wake up and for few seconds forget have one, everything is normal, then reality hits again [40]
so anxious at this point, think they could tell [40]
WOW [40]
burst into tears [40]
so shocked, amazing start to 2012 [40]
—————————————————————— 1/13/2012
Every time has bad day where feels exhausted, worry tumour suddenly started to grow again [43]
fret before a scan [43] eat bad food [43] made stay up late some nights watching TV instead of resting [43]
all sorts of worries will go through mind at this point [43]
diagnosed with tumour just over year ago, describes what it’s like living with malignant brain tumour [43]
it’s so awful it makes you feel like a character in the film ‘Saw’ [43]
like someone has put time bomb inside head, it will grow fast and more it grows you will slowly become more disabled [43]
Eventually it will win and you will lose the fight [43]
feel fortunate given chance to at least try treatment [43]
About improvement, burst into tears [43]
so shocked, what an amazing start to 2012 [43]
—————————————————————— 2/8/2012 – [47]
big milestone of a day [47]
just wanted to wear something to cover the site where tumour is, area has biopsy scar and hair is much thinner from radiation [47]
—————————————————————— 2/21/2012 – had 6 weekly MRI scan tuesday – scary time as always [48]
—————————————————————— 3/25/2012 – taking small steps but feeling more like old self all the time [49]
—————————————————————— 4/5/2012 – “scan week” always stressful time [50]
—————————————————————— 5/19/2012 – diagnosed 17 months ago now and even on hardest days never given up hope [52]
—————————————————————— 6/22/2012 – [53]
Everything takes toll eventually [53]
feel fine now and have caught up on sleep, for 6 days while off treatment awaiting blood culture results was almost as if nothing was wrong, in perfect health so breath of fresh air to have no IV bag to carry around [53]
fleeting moment of “normality” for our family again [53]
—————————————————————— 7/4/2012 – [54]
been emotional rollercoaster, when look back over past year and a half [54]
has certainly been a life changing experience for us and all of our family [54]
extreme stress of situation is starting to wear off and starting to feel able to relax a little now and do “normal” things most families probably take for granted like planning ahead into future rather than living day to day [54]
don’t think its possible to describe personal experience like this, much like amazing feeling of becoming a parent you have to experience it first hand to really know what its like [54]
—————————————————————— 8/8/2012 – When look back feel like looking at someone else’s life [55]
—————————————————————— 8/29/2012 – [55]
its been well worth all the hard work and effort [55]
Mentally stayed so strong despite over past 12 months (1 year) having not slept full night due to infusions – calculated has had at least 2150 ninety minute infusions to date [55]
These days, life is much more hopeful and slightly less stressful [55]
—————————————————————— 11/27/2012 – [56]
fight this every day for almost 2 years without ever once faltering or giving up [56]
Jacob has been here to give a reason to be strong and his unconditional love has been a huge part of healing process [56]
couldn’t be happier [56]
—————————————————————— 1/2013 – Dr Burzynski has given me and my family the future back and I am eternally grateful [3]
appreciate every minute of every day [3]
I’ll finish treatment but have my life back [3]
Who knows what tomorrow holds ? [3]
======================================
====================================== HEALTH
======================================
======================================
6/2011 – [47]
whilst having radiotherapy lost all hair which fell out very quickly – in a matter of hours – too quickly to really have any time to get used to the idea [47]
(if thats possible) [47]
for woman it can be a really big part of their identity, especially if you’re just 25 years old [47]
——————————————————————
1/12/2012 – [40]
When has scan every 6 weeks to find out how treatment is going go through different emotional stages [40]
After such good result last time where tumour shrank so much were feeling so positive for few weeks after, as next scan gets closer start to worry about silly things, every time has bad day where feels exhausted [40]
next day have really good day…. might have epileptic seizure, though has a LOT less of them now and aren’t as strong still worry means tumour growth [40]
eat bad food, stay up late some nights watching TV instead of resting, dragged round country parks for walks [40]
(probably in hind sight exercise is very good right now) [40]
——————————————————————
1/13/2012
has good days and bad days [43]
Every time has bad day where feels exhausted, worry tumour suddenly started to grow again [43]
next day have really good day … then might have epileptic seizure, even though has a LOT less of them now [43]
4/5/2012 – feeling really good apart from sinus infection unrelated to tumour or medication [50]
—————————————————————— 6/15/2012 – suspected Hickman Line infection, really exhausted and had cold shivers [53]
——————————————————————
======================================
====================================== TREATMENT
======================================
====================================== 1/2009 – suffered terrible morning sickness so severe had to be admitted to hospital [10]
—————————————————————— 5/2009 – morning sickness stopped at 16 weeks [10]
—————————————————————— 9/2009 – Jacob born [2] + [10]
visited GP dozens of times [10]
At 1st doctor thought was baby blues but months after Jacob born, still felt tired, diagnosed postnatal depression [10]
came home with anti-depressants [10]
knew wasn’t depression because felt so happy being a mum [10]
didn’t even take the pills [10]
—————————————————————— 5/27/2010 – [10]
—————————————————————— 10/2010 – while family, from Rochester, Kent, were in Lanzarote, developed weakness in right arm [10]
At first thought might have slept awkwardly or pulled a muscle [10]
Some days it was there, some days it wasn’t [10]
Other times felt tingling in fingers [10]
—————————————————————— 11/2010 – [2]
started to lose feeling and co-ordination in right arm which prompted an MRI scan at hospital [2]
health slowly declined over past year, never fully recovered after having Jacob and mis-diagnosed with range of things including exhaustion [2]
breakthrough diagnosis came after another visit to GP’s [10]
had a cold couldn’t shake off and went to see if needed antibiotics [10]
saw different doctor and he could see from notes sometimes been at surgery every week [10]
kept list of symptoms on iPhone [10]
handed it to him and he looked concerned [10]
been visiting surgery with different symptom every time [10]
When he saw them together, warning bells rang [10]
Although he didn’t say he suspected a brain tumour, he sent for tests [10]
—————————————————————— 12/24/2010 – results arrived [2] + [10]
few days later called back for results [10]
had brain scan but also had blood tests and thought was going to get those results [10]
had found something on scan [10]
huge tumour [10]
doctors broke news has rare, inoperable brain tumour [10]
told there’s no cure and it’s growing [10]
bad news was tumour, known as an oligodendroglioma, was inoperable – deep in the brain and removing it would be too dangerous, so all doctors could do was monitor it [10]
diagnosed with rare Brain Cancer and biopsy revealed is most aggressive type of brain cancer, not only is it inoperable because of size and location but also deemed incurable using available cancer therapies in UK, which can only at best slow down growth [2]
Tests showed was low-grade, slow-growing tumour [10]
explained could have had it for 20 years [10]
reassured when read stories saying people did live normal lives with this sort of tumour [10]
average life expectancy poor, fewer than 1 in 100 people diagnosed live for 5 years, this cancer is common in people over 50 [2]
(approx 5,000 diagnosed annualy in UK) [2]
very rare in Laura’s age group, less than 50 cases reported every year in UK and no known cause [2]
told by doctors in UK that brain tumour was inoperable [43]
set out to find an alternative cure [43]
find clinic in Houston, Texas, run by Dr. Burzynski, that pioneers new treatment for malignant brain cancer Laura has [43]
clinic in America has pioneering treatment proven very effective against this type of cancer without harming the body [2]
clinic has been running for over 30 years and has been able to not only stabilise, but potentially cure this awful disease in some cases [2]
treatment not available via NHS [2]
most patients require anything from 2 to 4 years treatment [2]
diagnosed with type of brain cancer for which there is no cure in Britain and wasn’t expected to live more than 12 months (1 year) [37]
Since diagnosed has developed epilepsy and has multiple seizures a day [37]
right arm almost paralysed so has been unable to pick up Jacob or bathe him [37]
—————————————————————— 2/2011 – right arm virtually paralysed [10]
also developed epilepsy and having seizures every day [10]
—————————————————————— 4/2011
biopsy [50]
tumor turned agressive [53]
next batch of test results arrived [10]
results of scan and biopsy [10]
doctors said tumour had grown rapidly [10]
turned into worst form of brain cancer – fast-growing, high-grade glioblastoma multiforme [10]
while they could give chemo and radiotherapy to try to shrink it and prolong life, was nothing more they could do [10]
didn’t have time to lose [10]
No one knows how long has left to live – do know has most aggressive form of brain cancer [10]
If did nothing could be 6 months to a year [10]
after painstaking research found clinic in Houston, US, which offers treatment still under trial and NHS will not fund [10]
In States, critics believe it’s expensive, with no proven results [10]
read stories claiming it worked for some [10]
sent the clinic notes [10]
treatment based on clinic’s 25 years of research showing people with the cancer are lacking tumour suppressor [10]
In people without cancer substance kills growing cancers [10]
clinic doctor believes replacing it with drug will trigger body’s immune system to rid itself of tumour [10]
having therapy to help shrink tumour [10]
—————————————————————— 5/2011 – prescribed 6 weeks radiotherapy coupled with Temozolomide chemotherapy [10]
potential life saving treatment in America [2]
travel to US for treatment hopes will save her life [10]
—————————————————————— 6/2011
1) completed radiotherapy course
2) had to stop chemo after few days because allergic reaction
3) doctors very honest – couldn’t continue TMZ cycles because was allergic to it
4) original oncologist against decision to go to America for treatment because controversial and not yet approved by NICE, or any medical body
5) transferred to another oncologist willing to take me on in London
made fully aware early on that cancer treatment and long term prognosis has improved for most common types of cancers over the years [23]
has been no real improvement in outcomes for Brain Tumours – especially Glioma which although being one of most common cancers, especially in children, are most under funded types of cancer in research arena [23]
spoke to past patients in US and UK, some who were cured many years ago from ‘terminal’ brain cancers using “antineoplastons” at Burzynski Clinic in Houston, Texas [23]
clinic treats many types of cancer with other therapies but for antineoplastons primarily focus on brain cancer because it is one of hardest to treat [23]
Prior to visit to US sent sample of Laura’s brain tumour tissue from biopsy procedure to Pheonix, Arizona [23]
At lab number of tests carried out including gene expression tests, genetic tests used to identify which treatments would be most effective for Laura as an individual – backup plan if antineoplastons had no effect [23]
“FDA approved” Phase II clinical trial – specifically “Antineoplaston A10 & AS2-1” which are treatments pioneered by Dr Burzynski in mid 1970’s [23]
—————————————————————— 7/1/2011
friday finished 6 week radiotherapy course [18]
treatment supposed to be given alongside chemotherapy but 10 days into 33 day course of chemotherapy developed allergic reaction and had to stop particular drug [18]
chemotherapy isnt very effective for everyone with Brain cancer and missing out on this drug also means Laura is so much stronger physically than she would have been otherwise, that coupled with great advice from our nutritionalist Jo Gamble has meant Laura is in amazing shape and able to travel to America safely to start treatment [18]
—————————————————————— 7/2011 – travelled to Burzynski Clinic in Houston end of July to start Antineoplaston treatment and for Ben to be trained on administering medicine by doctors at Clinic
—————————————————————— 7/2011
since starting treatment in America in July, has begun to show signs of improvement [37]
started to get use of paralysed right arm and hand back [37]
has got a lot more energy and is able to go on short walks with Jacob [37]
receive gene therapy at clinic in Texas [37]
treatment involves having daily doses of drugs and scans every 6 weeks [37]
—————————————————————— 7/2011 – 8/2011 – 3 weeks there and came home and continuing treatment
(administered by Ben with very close direction from clinic)
—————————————————————— 7/25/2011 – MRI scan Monday
—————————————————————— 7/28/2011
had agonising wait for results on Thursday
got results “Increase in size of tumour left frontal lobe” and sent straight off to clinic, took few hours to get green light (because of time difference) and by 6:30pm got call we were waiting for from clinic FDA should give