Critiquing: Watford Observer – ‘He said he hoped to cure my daughter’

6/7/2013 the Watford Observer published this article By Kathryn Snowdon [1]

“The mother of Luna Petagine has cast doubt on the expensive treatment the family sought in America during the Oxhey girl’s four-year battle with cancer
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Expensive treatment,” based on what objective criteria ? [2]
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BBC Panorama this week aired an investigation into Doctor Stanislaw Burzynski’s cancer clinic in Texas, where hundreds of children – normally terminally ill – go and seek treatment”

“Luna, who was five-years-old when she died last year, was a patient at The Burzynski Clinic after her parents were told the physician could cure their daughter, despite Great Ormond Street Hospital doctors saying little more could be done for her”
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Why the conflicting statements ?

a) “her parents were told the physician could cure their daughter”

b) “The NHS are telling me my daughter’s going to die and this man is telling me that he thinks he can cure her.”

c) “He said he hoped to cure my daughter

d) “The plan was to try and cure Luna.”
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Luna’s mother, Lucy Petagine, of Raglan Gardens, said there was no doubt in her mind she was going to send her daughter to Dr Burzynski

“Mrs Petagine said:”

“Of course I’m going to go with him

If anyone had knocked on my door and said

‘here if you try this it will work’

“then yeah I would have tried it because I was in desperation”

“The NHS are telling me my daughter’s going to die and this man is telling me that he thinks he can cure her.”

“Mrs Petagine added:”

“It was all about hope

He said he hoped to cure my daughter

The plan was to try and cure Luna.”

“In order to finance the treatment, which the family believed could be life-saving, more than £100,000 was raised and in September 2011 they travelled to America”

“However, Mrs Petagine said the treatment at The Burzynski Clinic was actually killing her daughter

“She added:”

The treatment was – what was happening – was actually killing Luna because it put this pressure on her brain stem.”
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Why did Mrs Petagine say that “the treatment at The Burzynski Clinic”“was actually killing Luna” ?

Did someone tell her this, or was this her personal opinion ?

We know from Burzynski’s 3/2004 publication that:

“The reason for 50% Progressive Disease (PD) in studies is long dose-escalation process, which extends to more than a month’s time period, before the optimal dosage is reached” [3]
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“In response to Panorama’s questioning and claims that he was merely selling hope to vulnerable families, Dr Burzynski said:”

“Can you imagine that the US government… they would allow me to be here if I just sell hope?”
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Isn’t every cancer treatment “selling hope to vulnerable families”?

Isn’t every cancer clinical trial “selling hope to vulnerable families” ?
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“The treatment has not been approved by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
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12/2008 – Burzynski’s publication advised:

“In 2004 the FDA granted orphan drug designation for antineoplastons A10 and AS2-1 for the treatment of brainstem glioma” [4]

9/2012“The FDA granted Orphan Drug designation for Antineoplastons A10 and AS2-1 for the treatment of gliomas, in 2009″ [5]
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“A month into Luna’s therapy, an MRI revealed the tumour had grown, pressing on Luna’s brain stem and causing her breathing problems and facial palsy”

Mrs Petagine said:”

“They said the tumour’s grown and we were like ‘how could it have grown this quickly, this doesn’t make sense’.”
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What does Mrs Petagine mean when she said:

‘how could it have grown this quickly, this doesn’t make sense’ ?

We know from [3] above, that the tumor is likely to grow before the medicine has reached it’s optimal dosage, and the tumor starts to decrease in size
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Luna had to be admitted to intensive care in Texas Children’s Hospital

Mrs Petagine said:”

Texas Children’s hate The Burzynski Clinic

“They said they have to clean up all his mess”

“The second you walk in the door they look at your child and they did actually say to us ‘are you a Burzynski family?’”
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If Texas Children’s actually does that with every child patient that comes in the door, that would be a really stupid bias to foist on some unsuspecting parent
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“Luna died in August last year”
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Unfortunately, the article does not tell the reader what happened ?

Was Luna taken off of antineoplaston therapy?

Or was she still on the treatment when she unfortunately passed ?
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REFERENCES:
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[1] – 9:50am Friday 7th June 2013, By Kathryn Snowdon
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http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/10470494.print/
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[2] – 9/22/2013 – Critiquing Wikipedia: Burzynski Clinic – 2013 BBC documentary, Curing cancer or ‘selling hope’ to the vulnerable?
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https://stanislawrajmundburzynski.wordpress.com/2013/09/22/critiquing-wikipedia-burzynski-clinic-2013-bbc-documentary-curing-cancer-or-selling-hope-to-the-vulnerable/
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[3] – Review Articles on Clinical Trials:

1. 3/2004 – The Present State of Antineoplaston Research
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Integrative Cancer Therapies 2004;3:47-58
Volume 3, No. 1, March 2004

DOI: 10.1177/1534735-403261964

Volume 3 Number 1.March.2004

Pg. 50
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Click to access 994.pdf

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[4] – 12/2008 – Patil, S., Burzynski, S., Chittur, S., Mrowczynski, E., Grela, K. The ingredients of antineoplaston AS2-1 down-regulate glycolysis pathways in glioblastoma cells. Neuro-Oncology 2008; 10:1148

Volume 10 Issue 6.December.2008
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Click to access 7897.pdf

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[5] – 9/2012 – Patil, S., Burzynski S.R., Mrowczynski, E., Grela, K. P.003. Phenylacetylglutaminate in combination with Phenylbutyrate effectively inhibits growth of brain tumor cell In Vitro. Neuro-Oncology 2012;14(Suppl. 3):iii16

Volume 14 Supplement 3 September 2012
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Click to access 9291.pdf

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Critiquing Wikipedia: Burzynski Clinic – 2013 BBC documentary, Curing cancer or ‘selling hope’ to the vulnerable?

Wikipedia must be too busy accusing me of using multiple Internet I.P. addresses to try and change every wiki article under the sun, instead of keeping their Burzynski article up-to-date

I await the in-depth analysis which breaks down my blog, Twitter, and Internet activity, showing that it was humanly possible for me to do all that has been claimed

But then again, maybe I’m NOT human !

HAL ?

Is that you HAL ?

Anywho, WP took a crack at addressing the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) Panorama documentary [1]

I did some critiques on the documentary article, documentary, and WP’s “credible source,” Dr. David H. Orac … Gorski [2-4]

“Burzynski exploits a legal loophole”by treating patients” with antineoplastons do so as part of a clinical trial, so the drug does not need a licence” for twenty years.” [66]

“Legal loophole” ?

Really ??

Not so much

It’s the law

“The Skeptics™” have had years to get it changed in Congress if it were a “legal loophole”

“According to Watford Observer, the mother of Luna Petagine, a young girl with a brain tumor, “cast doubt” on Burzynski’s “expensive treatment.” [67]

“Expensive treatment” ?

Based on what objective criteria ? [5-6]

The Reading Post said, the Panorama investigation shown on Monday questioned whether the Burzynski Clinic was ‘selling hope’to families” which doubted the statistics provided by the Burzynski Clinic. [68]

Based on what objective criteria ?

“They say 776 patients with brain tumours were treated in trials before 2008.”

“And that 15.5% had survived more than five years, which compares favourably to other treatments.” [6] (see #13)

Where’s Wikipedia’s survival rates for:

a) Chemotherapy

b) Radiation Therapy

c) Radiotherapy

d) Other

and their comparison of possible adverse effects of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, radiotherapy, other, compared to antineoplastons ?

The issues I had with the documentary were:

1. “The report includes interviews with experts like Professor Richard Grundy of Nottingham Children’s Hospital”

“Prof Richard Grundy treats children with cancer, and runs one of the UK’s biggest research projects into brain tumours.”

“He says it is “unethical” for Dr Burzynski not to share his findings:”

In my ‘opinion,’ it is “unethical” for Professor Grundy to NOT share his findings re Dr. Burzynski’s 2003-2010 phase 2 clinical trial preliminary reports [7]

2. “Unfortunately the results from Dr Burzynski’s clinic are not published in any form that’s acceptable to the scientific community.””

Explain [7]

3. Dr Jeanine Graf

“She sometimes treats patients from the Burzynski Clinic who have become critically ill, but she has never known any of them survive.”

How many patients ?

Richard Bilton asked for numbers from Burzynski, so he should be consistent and have asked Dr. Graf the same question

4. “He must believe in what he’s doing, but I have not been convinced by the existing scientific literature that his therapy has any efficacy.”

Where is Dr. Graf’s “in-depth” review of Dr. Burzynski’s above-listed publications ? [7]
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REFERENCES:
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[1] – Wikipedia: Burzynski Clinic – Legal Issues: 2013 BBC documentary, Curing cancer or ‘selling hope’ to the vulnerable?
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burzynski_Clinic
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http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burzynski_Clinic
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http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Burzynski_Clinic&mobileaction=toggle_view_desktop
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[2] – 6/4/2013 – The British are Coming, The British are Coming: Critiquing
“Curing cancer or ‘selling hope’ to the vulnerable?”
:

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https://stanislawrajmundburzynski.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/the-british-are-coming-the-british-are-coming-critiquing-curing-cancer-or-selling-hope-to-the-vulnerable/
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[3] – 6/7/2013 – IT MAY NOT BE SCIENCE: Critiquing “Curing cancer or ‘selling hope’ to the vulnerable?”:
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https://stanislawrajmundburzynski.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/it-may-not-be-science-critiquing-curing-cancer-or-selling-hope-to-the-vulnerable/
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[4] – 8/4/2013 – Critiquing Dr David H. “Orac”
Gorski, M.D., Ph.D, LIAR: Stanislaw Burzynski versus the BBC:

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https://stanislawrajmundburzynski.wordpress.com/2013/08/04/critiquing-dr-david-h-orac-gorski-m-d-ph-d-liar-stanislaw-burzynski-versus-the-bbc/
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[66] – Richard Bilton

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http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/wxxjy/panorama–cancer-hope-for-sale—panorama
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there for posterity on YouTube

http://t.co/YOlSjCg1d0
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THIS IS IT!

http://fb.me/LYCqmKrh
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http://t.co/6cDJapt6eM
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http://t.co/nFpwlQg275
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[67] – Watford Observer
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http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/10470494.print/
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[5] – 4/25/2013 – Burzynski: Costs of Cancer treatments:
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https://stanislawrajmundburzynski.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/burzynski-costs-of-cancer-treatments/
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[6] – 7/18/2013 – Critiquing: In which the latest movie about Stanislaw Burzynski “cancer cure” is reviewed…with Insolence:
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See #10
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https://stanislawrajmundburzynski.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/critiquing-in-which-the-latest-movie-about-stanislaw-burzynski-cancer-cure-is-reviewed-with-insolence-2/
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[68] – Reading Post
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http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/amelia-saunders-family-mislead-burzynski-4051287
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[7] – 8/7/2013 – Burzynski: Phase II Clinical Trials Preliminary Reports:
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https://stanislawrajmundburzynski.wordpress.com/2013/08/07/burzynski-phase-ii-clinical-trials-preliminary-reports/
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