-
Sofarsogood88 01/20/2012 9:13:00 AM
The village voice is still in publication? Wow. Some cancers really do never go away.
-
Gman_plus_2000 01/17/2012 5:39:00 PM
I suppose Dr Gerson and his daughter Charlotte (www.gerson.org) are on your hit list too.
Healthy skepticism is good but there is a point when the facts overwhelmingly support the truth. Are you being paid to write what you do or are you just very low on the common sense scale? You might be wise to reinvest your time to watch this again because you just may need it some day. That is, unless you are being paid to write this crap, then you can just go to hell.
-
Amy6771 01/16/2012 12:52:00 AM
Obviously you didn't watch the movie very closely...there is proof you idiot! This man isa genious and God bless his soul for continuing to help people despite our crooked government that cares only about money and not human life; constantly wasting our tax dollars trying to take his licenses away for doing nothing wrong but curing people. I hope u get cancer someday and suffer you ignorant idiot! Then u can try the bullshit treatment our gov. Has!
-
01/13/2012 6:19:00 PM
This is a man devoted to caring for people. Our government is quite literally committing crimes against humanity by not allowing us to freely support Burzynski's medical advances. In 10 years time we will look back on today and think just how barbaric it actually was to be "treating" patients with chemotherapy.
Just a guess but if blogging we're a reality in the 1400's Ella Taylor probably would have blogged about Christopher Columbus being the idiot that's sailing off the edge of the world...
-
Guest 01/12/2012 6:50:00 AM
Perhaps you missed the footage... with three sides speaking. Conspiratorial? The FDA didn't say it didn't work. You need to educate yourself in terms of intellectual property law. I bet you're on an Apple computer. That would make Burzynski, Xerox. Hint: Apple stole the GUI and Mouse from Xerox... look what happened.
-
01/10/2012 10:01:00 PM
making fun of the guy's hair? That is the best you can do? Maybe we should see a picture of you too. I bet you are funny-as-shit looking. Good reporting job, by the way. Just as biased as you claim the film to be
-
Darrt6 01/09/2012 9:40:00 AM
How much are the shills paying YOU to write this crap, and did you get your DADDY to buy your degree for you??? because this aint journalism!!!!!! There is a 2.1% survival rate in the US and 2.3% survival rate in Australia when people are treated with chemotherapy and you condone that, remember this, what goes around comes around ELLA!!!!!! These are real figures which have been published on PubMed and not the BS you're talking. Would you use Chemotherapy if you or anyone in your family were diagnosed with CANCER after hearing this FACT???? Go for it!!!
darrt6
-
Dianedraytonbuckland 01/09/2012 4:44:00 AM
And I suppose you'd know about ethical journalism would you Ella? NOT IMPRESSED!!!
-
ZeitgeistMovie.com 01/08/2012 4:17:00 AM
Quack? The US government tried multiple times to patent Burzynski's invention listing Dvorit Samid as Inventor.
Your post is just the latest in a long line of propaganda. Whether you know it or not, you're a mindless slave to the plutocrats.
-
01/06/2012 11:26:00 PM
uhh.. i think he gained their trust by curing them. And provided mountains of evidence to that respect. "produces no patient records"? What are you talking about??
-
Benhymas 12/29/2011 5:42:00 PM
How much were you paid for this slur on Dr Burzynski's amazing ground breaking work Ella? My fiancée's grade 4 brain cancer is shrinking very quickl. Under his care. Our NHS oncologists (who were against us going initially) now admit they agree Antineoplastons from Dr Burzynski are WORKING. This man should be applauded and helped not ostracised and abused.
-
D. Douglas 12/29/2011 3:43:00 PM
Ella, have you seriously researched any of this material? Seriously? Why would the govt steal Burzynski's patents if they're "worthless quackery"? I think Ella has a big secret..... don't you, Ella?
-
12/22/2011 7:21:00 PM
I can't believe the "Voice" has turned into "Blather". This sounds like something out of FOX news. Grimes, that is the problem. The dollar is now more powerful than the pen.
-
12/16/2011 3:08:00 PM
clarkgirls -- I have been looking for someone to talk to about Burzynski. My brother is going thru a tough battle with cancer and has been considering Burzynski. He has so many questions about it and I am wondering if I can get you in contact with him? Our family would really appreciate it.
MG
-
12/15/2011 8:07:00 PM
Ask yourself - why would a multi-millionaire spend millions of dollars for a job that only pays six figures on paper .
I have been wondering that for years. My senator in Idaho is Risch. He ran in 2008 and swore he was going to get the people that caused the economic collapse. When he got in, he and the other republican senator voted not to reform wall street. Risch as an ambulence chasing lawyer type that made 54 million suing class actions.
-
Grimes23kg 12/10/2011 2:56:00 AM
Do some research if your own lemmings. The treatments work, hence the reason the government has stolen his patents and are performing trials. Big pharma is a 3 trillion dollar business and won't go quietly, even if our children, mothers, brothers and friends have to die to maintain profit margins. Learn to think for yourself people, or somebody will do it for you.
-
Jare215th 12/07/2011 6:37:00 AM
I agree. The movie feels likes infomercial. But hopefully this is real. Wow if this is another Blair whitch these guys should burn.
-
Djtwnsnd 12/06/2011 4:40:00 AM
Nice synopsis Ella. You must make money off of chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
-
12/04/2011 9:39:00 PM
As a cancer survivor of 43 years and currently dying of the massive dose of radiation given. I am appalled by the greed of big Pharma and the collusion of the FDA. God forgive them.
I hope Dr. Bruzynski will be vindicated and applauded in his own time. Shame on this nation.
-
Mike 12/02/2011 5:59:00 AM
Honestly I watched this film and was amazed more by the dialog directly from people working for the FDA. They said his treatment worked and don't question its effectiveness. Did the idiot who wrote this article miss that. Duh! Watch the film again with the volume on and pay attention it might save your own life some day.
-
mohagany 12/02/2011 2:34:00 AM
Wow Ella! No proof huh? The abundance of medical records shown right on film aren't sufficient records I guess. So when I broke my hand a couple years back it must have been pretty ignorant of me to suspect I had a broken hand because my medical record said so, and it must have been extraordinarily ignorant to suspect that it was healed when the doctor said it was and pulled the pins out of my hand. The point of the matter is there are still doctors out there who actually have passion for what they do and actually heal people of "uncurable" diseases. The fact, FACT, FACT that 1/6 of our total annual revenue in America is made up from our medical industry, and that 60% of that money is made off of people that have two or less years to live says more than I need to explain. If you don't know that disease and death are a business here in America and that there are some very powerful people who mean to keep it that way, you really, really need to pull your head out of your ass. It is amazing to me that people like Hitler, Manson, or Khan to name a small few are people that prove without a doubt that humans are capable of the most hideous, purely evil crimes yet people find it so hard to admit that there are people out there that are still capable of doing such things. The only thing that has changed is people lie about their crimes and mistakes; they don't have the balls to take credit for their actions. But at the same time (though this is changing at the moment and people are waking up), people are so full of apathy these days that they will try to belittle someone like Burzynski in order to avoid having to stand up for themselves against an obviously corrupt system. Insulting the bringers of bad news instead of insulting the people who caused it, or ignoring bad news all together is the simplest way to be a coward without giving the impression that you are one. I am sorry Ella that you live in ignorance out of fear of what would happen if you started to care. Your life then may very well become more stressful because you had to work toward something that mattered instead of trying to crush people who actually give a damn.
Try watching someone you love die from cancer (with all the western medicine you can think of) and then find out years later that there isn't just one cure, there are many, all kept under wraps and/or made illegal in the U.S. of A. Canaboids erradicate tumors with not a single negative side effect, but the treatment is illegal in America. Vitamin C in high doses cures many forms of cancer without a single negative side effect, but this treatment was banned from the US by the FDA last year. Three of my proffesors cured themselves of cancer through the Gerson therapy, one of them having stage 4 melanoma. All cured! This is also a treatment you never hear about in any hospital. Oh yeah, there was no negative side effects. Now, we have cemo and radiation, two methods that not only hardly ever cure anything and have a very, very, very low success rate, especially when you compare it to the other methods, they more often than not put cancer patients in more pain, make them more sick, and in many cases they pick up another form of cancer on top of the cancer they already have from these treatments. These are the treatments you get in America. Now, just using the most basic of common sense, tell me there isn't something wrong with this picture? If the medical industry actually cared about people, then why are people still being treated through cemo and radiation when there are far better, proven without a doubt, set in stone, absolutely 100% factual alternatives? The fact of the matter is is the more people who are cured of terminal illnesses, the less private medical companies make. I am sure someone will try to argue this so I will remind you that this is not a matter of opinion. This is fact. A fact is a fact. A fact cannot be changed through opinion, bias or apathy. A fact is a fact.
-
11/30/2011 4:33:00 AM
Being a retired "public servant from the government sector", and have family who was involved big time with the government, I have one thing to say - WAKE UP PEOPLE ! Do you really believe that your government works for THE PEOPLE that elected them. When you become a politican, either side of the party fence, it is a power struggle to the top to grab the most you can ! Ask yourself - why would a multi-millionaire spend millions of dollars for a job that only pays six figures on paper .
-
11/28/2011 11:38:00 PM
He's been charging tens of thousands of dollars for the tests he's supposedly pressing for. He has been claiming for about thirty years to be running clinical trials, without ever publishing a single peer-reviewed paper. He's pocketed millions of dollars without convincing a single person who was not either already financially committed to his cause or desperately clutching at straws.
The soundtrack to the "movie" should be ducks quacking.
-
Mark 11/26/2011 5:08:00 AM
Hey maybe your next article could read, "USA Gov Bullies Polish scientist for saving lives but killing US pharma economy"
The only side effect of his medicine is the jealously of people like you!
-
Mark 11/26/2011 5:03:00 AM
Well said!
-
Mark 11/26/2011 4:53:00 AM
Ella Taylor, where do we start? It seems you may have watched the doc but didn't listen. He's been pushing for tests for many years. The issue is that the powers to be have done everything they can to steal his work. How do YOU explain his patients that had brain stem cancer (previously 100% fatal) still alive many years later an testifying they were his patients and with supporting MRI scans independent of his facilities? As for the quack factor, it's called propaganda and as admitted by a certain authority is their means of destroying him after legal avenues have failed. This could be one of the greatest discoveries of medicine and the U$ greed authorities are going to look like shit even more than they do now. Just a matter of time.
You need to watch it again and listen this time.
-
Guest 11/26/2011 3:34:00 AM
How much did big pharma pay the author?
-
11/24/2011 10:13:00 PM
"And by the way, vitamins and minerals are not tested by the FDA... does that mean any doctor who recommends them is a quack too? "
If he claims they can cure cancer then yes, he would be a quack.
-
Mac268658 11/24/2011 8:17:00 PM
This guy is a fraud he may have one his case because the FDA couldn't prove it but if you do the research it's pretty obvious he is exploiting the vulnerable for personal gain.
-
Apryl A. 11/23/2011 9:37:00 PM
While the documentary was poorly made, the point it brought up was nonetheless important. Our medical freedoms are thinly veiled and completely controlled by the government and corporations. The fact that the FDA kept coming after Burzynski even after numerous grand juries concluded that there was no evidence of wrong doing, was beyond ridiculous. As a nation, we should be appalled at how the chairman of the FDA said he would refuse to allow trials of a drug if it didn't come from a major pharma company. Even if Burzynski were to only have a handful of successful cases, it would merit a closer look. In this case, it was documented that he saved hundreds of people's lives who had no hope, according to modern medicine. That isn't the definition of a quack. That's the definition of someone who cares more about human life than our own government. And by the way, vitamins and minerals are not tested by the FDA... does that mean any doctor who recommends them is a quack too?
-
11/23/2011 3:37:00 AM
Ella Taylor - your a clown, I just hope that you aren't too narcissistic to run to the quack doctor if you or your family members ever come across a situation with cancer. I think before writing this article, you should have interviewed some of his clients and read through their med records to support your accusations.
-
Charles C. 11/21/2011 9:53:00 PM
The film may have felt like a bad commercial, but the message it delivered was loud and clear: Burzynski's Cancer treatments save lives. The only real quack is this reviewer masquerading as a film critic. I doubt you even watched the whole film.
-
Cpostorino 11/21/2011 2:07:00 PM
You clearly did not do the research after the film and maybe if you or a loved one have cancer one day you will spend the time to do so.
-
No_mind 11/19/2011 2:22:00 PM
Whether the treatment worked or not was not the point and was made clear in the movie. It's seems none of his trouble was actually about the efficacy and safety of the medication, that was never brought up, in fact the government lawyers seem to go to great pains to say that was totally irrelevant and should not even be allowed into the legal proceedings. Why are you making a point that seemed to be the only thing that was not brought into question. These patients were totally.written off by their doctors they had nothing to lose in trying his treatment.
-
Rhills 11/18/2011 2:44:00 PM
I haven't seen any patients complaining as yet? How many people died through his treatment? Oh... And how many people die through chemo and radiotherapy?
Wake up!
-
Mapwu 11/18/2011 11:31:00 AM
So make the documentary that exposes him as the fraud you think he is... instead of blasting him with personal insults.
-
Lmarie 11/16/2011 5:52:00 PM
Nice Ad Hominen appeal. You use more time bashing the people instead of the actual treatment. Meaning you have nothing to base your argument on besides the fact you do not like the doctor and director. Sounds like you also did not watch the documentary because there are multiple hard facts, statistics, case studies, and medical records from other doctors. Looks like you need more schooling on how to present a valid case.
-
11/16/2011 2:14:00 AM
If the Big Pharma can sponsor (read: buy) sites like WebMD and Mayo Clinic, they can certainly afford to pay Ella Taylor or whoever wrote this
-
11/16/2011 1:25:00 AM
ha! wow, the Village Voice is defiantly an appropriate name for the holder of this article. For someone to take a personal attack on an individual and discredit them by Name calling is just sad and poor journalism.. but again - this is The Village Voice, what do I know about journalism? Hey Ella Taylor, do you live in huts or still under rocks - Just Curious.
-
11/15/2011 3:15:00 PM
I am a patient of Dr. Burzynski, so I will tell you firsthand what it's like.....First I want to say unless you've been in someone's cancer shoes, you shouldn't talk about an experience you know absolutely nothing about. I have recurrent cancer and went through the whole chemotherapy/radiation experience. 8 rounds of intense chemotherapy and went to radiation everyday for 6 weeks. It didn't work. My cancer came back less than 2 years later in my liver. I am a young mother with 2 daughters who really wants to live to take care of them. Did chemotherapy and lost my hair again. Heard about Dr. Burzynski and today I have hair again, and feel great. My cancer is non visable on a scan just a little scar tissue and my tumor numbers are still going down. I can do everything a normal person does with my children instead of laying in a bed most of the day and feeling like a truck ran over me. Not to mention looking emaciated. Back up to a normal weight. There is no guarantee in life ever. Dr. Burzynski NEVER promises you a cure, but gives you some hope. So to someone who is terminal and who has everything to live for? This is everything. It's about choices. I should be able choose AND pay for whatever I want when it's my life in jeopardy. What's it hurting anyone else? Dr. Burzynski really does care about his patients just as any other Dr. should.
-
Johnny_buzzz 11/14/2011 12:46:00 AM
Ella Taylo,, you are now in the category Of Bird-Brains - - ranting like a bratty teen with name calling with no real substance to your stance'. You say "how did this guy gain the trust of his patients is Anybodys guess".
Ella are you serious? Saving patients from the endless torture of chemo with no side effects and living longer, possibly the rest of your life cancer-free may be a half a reason to trust the Doctor....If the FDA and Government wanted to save a higher percentage of the public from dying at the hands of cancer, Dr. Burzynskis treatments would have been supported and encouraged across the country, possibly around the globe to heal dying men, women and children suffering from Cancer. But then again there's no money in a simple treatment , with no side effects that would Wipeout the billions made from hundreds of current cancer drugs and chemo treatments with million dollar machines which could be deemed useless once his methods prevail. Theres no money in curing cancer. The money is when there's no cure with lots of expensive drugs and treatments which hardly ever work. How can real doctors who have heard of his work , ignore the results he's shown and the lives he saves while calling him a quack? If Drug companies and Government werent corrupt with Greed & Lies we could overcome and thrive instead of the mess and uncertainty of our near future. When cures are withheld for greed the future isn't pretty. Be Vigilant
-
11/10/2011 6:51:00 AM
Remind me never to read or listen to anything Ella Taylor says. I hope you have made money on this otherwise your just dumb.
-
11/10/2011 5:09:00 AM
It's almost comical how you advertise your stupidity all over the internet. Did you even watch the film? Do you not consider the PEOPLE who have said they were helped by his treatment to be "credible"? You're a classic example of how blinded Americans are. It's only to be believed if "papa" says it.
And who the hell cares what you think of his dye job?
-
Elaine 11/09/2011 2:13:00 AM
"no patient records other than the Doctor's own" : LIE
"no credible proof of the drug's success": LIE
"slams chemotherapy and radiation" Do you mean by 'slamming' that he compares statistics of success rates of patients with the same diagnoses who have been treated with chemo and radiation with his treatment? Can we take you serious when you resort to derogatory name calling such as: 'powerful stench', 'weirdly robotic', 'conspiratorial rubish', 'charlatan'. Is that the best you can do Ella?? Did you even watch the film??
-
11/06/2011 8:24:00 PM
Alan, you and others who posted here, indicating that only Dr. Burzynski's evidence for the efficacy of his antineoplastone therapy was offered in the film, need to watch the film again. First, the government's suits aimed at stopping his treatment made no claim that the therapy did not work and in fact government lawyers refused to allow evidence to the therapy's effectiveness to be entered into evidence at trial claiming that it was irrelevant. At the same time (revealed at the end of the film) the government, in collusion with Dr. Samid was touting the effectiveness of antineoplastone therapy in it's fraudulent patent applications to the U.S. Patent office. Further, they noted that the treatment was a welcome alternative to conventional chemotherapy which introduced to the body, chemicals that were themselves carcinogenic. Watch the movie again - it's hard to get everything the first time. The government's own testimony is more damning as anything offered by Dr. Burzynski.
-
11/06/2011 8:23:00 PM
Alan, you and others who posted here, indicating that only Dr. Burzynski's evidence for the efficacy of his antineoplastone therapy was offered in the film, need to watch the film again. First, the government's suits aimed at stopping his treatment made no claim that the therapy did not work and in fact government lawyers refused to allow evidence to the therapy's effectiveness to be entered into evidence at trial claiming that it was irrelevant. At the same time (revealed at the end of the film) the government, in collusion with Dr. Samid was touting the effectiveness of antineoplastone therapy in it's fraudulent patent applications to the U.S. Patent office. Further, they noted that the treatment was a welcome alternative to conventional chemotherapy which introduced to the body, chemicals that were themselves carcinogenic. Watch the movie again - it's hard to get everything the first time. The government's own testimony is more damning as anything offered by Dr. Burzynski.
-
Gc 90210 11/06/2011 9:30:00 AM
Ella, your so-called article reveals a serious case of laziness and callousness in researching the topic. You're too lazy to even try to pretend you're a real writer - maybe it's time to quit. Or, if Village Voice knows what's right, they'll fire you. If you had actually watched the documentary and not just scrolled through (maybe you didn't even do that?) you would know that it was not possible to interview Burzynski's attackers because they declined any requests to appear in the film. The reason being that they (the FDA, Élan, Dvorit Samid, the National Cancer Institute, etc.) were guilty of trying to run a good doctor out of business because his medical discovery conflicted with traditional methods of cancer treatment/the pharmaceutical companies behind them. Burzynski's new cancer treatment threatened their shared agenda of keeping Big Pharma's coffers full and their absolute power intact. It is disturbing that you so easily slander a doctor's good reputation when medical experts all over the world have admitted that his treatment is more effective in curing cancer and saving lives than traditional methods. What's also disturbing is that Village Voice would allow such a glib misrepresentation of the facts on a topic as serious as cancer. You're not a doctor, you're not an expert, and you definitely don't have the research skills that a good writer is supposed to have So make the most of your sorry facade for a career and keep your mouth shut on topics in which you are an amateur lest you continue to propagate your irresponsible misinformation.
-
Luiza 11/06/2011 2:34:00 AM
wake up and smell the coffee sister...the movie offers evidence of the fraudulent activity of several different organizations...what would you like the director to do...ask the organizations if they were in fact fraudulent based on the documents they have written and signed?..the world does not work that way...there are not just two sides to everything...nor are things simply relative...there is a truth out there......plus most of the events were public...i didn't see this as an advertisement but rather as a public plea and outrage at our system...also...i am glad that you have your own evidence ready in the article to be able to present the doctor as a quack...where is YOUR journalistic integrity in presenting us with this piece?...
-
11/06/2011 12:26:00 AM
I agree. I watched this documentary with an open mind and got the feeling it was more an infomercial than anything. The key to discerning: when everything is "good, good, good" or everything is "bad, bad, bad" you're not getting the whole truth. There might be some merit to his research, but this certainly was not an accurate picture.
-
11/05/2011 12:06:00 AM
So, did he cure your friends' cancer, then?
-
Suziemcclelland 11/04/2011 7:56:00 PM
This journalist must have been paid big bucks by the FDA to write this article.
-
11/03/2011 4:13:00 AM
You are an idiot
-
meg 11/01/2011 6:46:00 PM
Re: Quack Quack goes Burzynski:
The author of this article needs to do her own research which she is claiming that the director of the documentary has not. We are dear friends of a patient of this Dr. We know first hand the fight that our friend's father went through to save his son and go against exactly what this documentary is talking about. Our friend has been cancer free for many years from an effective treatment. He was very close to death from an aggressive brain tumor and there was no hope for him through the toxic treatments that are decades old. His father went to the most prestigious doctors and heads of hospitals to hear them say this out of their own mouths. The doctors still wanted the family to put him on chemo and radiation treatments. Our friends wouldn't settle for this barbaric form of treatment with only one outcome - death. They went to Dr. Burzynski who the prestigious, intelligent doctors called a quack for no other reason than that he is doing things differently with out using the status quo treatments that our medical establishment says we should be using. You can read our friends story online. Google: Jason Merkle. And do not settle for toxic treatments that may very well kill you in the end before you at least look into the Burzynski clinic - especially if you have a child with an inoperable brain tumor that almost always leads to death. There is no need for precious children (and their families) to go through hell and then die in the end. How doctors and pharmaceutical companies can allow this to happen when they know there is another way is UNBELIEVABLE. There can only one word for it: evil. Ms. Taylor, I beg you to do your research before joining these people and possibly turning even one more family away from a cure for their cancer. For the sake of many precious real lives out there and for your own conscience, I pray you recant this article.
-
10/28/2011 7:53:00 PM
The film is a sales pitch to an extent, but the two objectives were presented favorably. Corporation deviance, and Dr. B really has sustained a treatment/cure....What I find surprising is how Gerson therapy and its overwhelming success is never talked about, nor shown. Reading comments and blogs on countless pages with no mention. Well if you liked this documentary, please checkout some on the Gerson therapy( I recommend "Dying to have known" then "The Beautiful Truth" in that order). You can see all the pieces of the puzzle begin to fit
-
10/28/2011 7:52:00 PM
The film is a sales pitch to an extent, but the two objectives were presented favorably. Corporation deviance, and Dr. B really has sustained a treatment/cure....What I find surprising is how Gerson therapy and its overwhelming success is never talked about, nor shown. Reading comments and blogs on countless pages with no mention. Well if you liked this documentary, please checkout some on the Gerson therapy( I recommend "Dying to have known" then "The Beautiful Truth" in that order). You can see all the pieces of the puzzle begin to fit
-
10/28/2011 7:52:00 PM
The film is a sales pitch to an extent, but the two objectives were presented favorably. Corporation deviance, and Dr. B really has sustained a treatment/cure....What I find surprising is how Gerson therapy and its overwhelming success is never talked about, nor shown. Reading comments and blogs on countless pages with no mention. Well if you liked this documentary, please checkout some on the Gerson therapy( I recommend "Dying to have known" then "The Beautiful Truth" in that order). You can see all the pieces of the puzzle begin to fit
-
10/27/2011 8:23:00 PM
I experienced cancer myself. And I just saw a documentary style film about this doctor as a result of reading your piece - and I am now utterly convinced the FDA is a fraudulent, criminal, profiteering organisation run for the benefit of corporations and lawyers - a time-wasting mobster outfit which treats people like cash machines and laboratory animals. I have never seen anything as despicable in my life. Burzynski gets my vote as man of the century for standing up to the FDA ghouls, and how America has sunk to these levels is beyond me.
-
10/26/2011 5:20:00 PM
If this is the whole "article", shame upon the author. She took a coward's way out.
-
Ginayedinak 10/26/2011 4:03:00 PM
Seriously? If the public doesn't wake up and smell the fraud and deceit around the FDA and cancer, shame on us! They have no intention of curing cancer cuz then the money stops flowing! People like burzynski are our hope! Why is it so surprising that there is a cure for cancer? Isn't that what the American Cancer Society is supposedly looking for? No they have no desire to find a real cure because then everyone involved would have to find jobs and no one is going to research themselves out of a job! Thank you dr burzynski for taking on this fight. May God protect you, because you definately have enemies with big guns & big $!
-
10/24/2011 10:37:00 PM
Everyone has told me, watch the film.
I just watched it. It's very powerful. There are many statements in the film, including some from credible sources, that give evidence against my own previous assumptions about Dr. B. I was bothered by the lack of interviews on the other side but I did note the film maker's claim that he tried to get statements from Dr. B's opponents but they wouldn't respond.
On the other side, I am not ready to dismiss Ella Taylor's criticisms of the film. It is a sales job. It is very slick. It is one sided. It does rely extensively on information provided by Dr. B with no evidence of independent checking of his claims of effectiveness.
I am also very bothered by the harsh attacks on conventional medicine in the film. The film makes it out that chemotherapy and radiation are killers. In fact they have saved many lives. My own cancer was apparently cured eight years ago by radiation and hormone treatment. I am afraid that films like this will encourage many people with treatable cancers to avoid treatment out of fear and seek alternative means that don't work - leading to unnecessary suffering and death. I believe that the film maker hoped to save lives but he might wind up costing more lives than he saves.
However, I will suspend further criticism of Dr. B. I'm hoping that he will make faster progress with his clinical trials and we'll be able see what the trials prove.
-
10/24/2011 5:45:00 PM
Alan, if you have negative results in clinical trials, they won't let you move forward. He's been moving forward for 15 years, now on clinical 3 trials.Not to mention how bizarre and stringent his clinical trials are ie: Patients must fail Chemo therapy prior to being enrolled in trial.
He has patients that were cured of cancer at a higher rate than chemo. They were diagnosed by other medical establishments. so either the body has a higher rate of success than chemo to combat cancer or his drugs work.
Lastly, The FDA filed patents to his drugs. Why patent something that doesn't work?
Watch the movie already, Alan.
-
10/24/2011 5:32:00 PM
Harsh criticism from Ella Taylor. I would understand the poor attitude of the film, but why so angry against the subject?
The director brings up many good points, which all check out. By how Ella wrote the article, it sounds as if she's either out to get Burzinski, or she really doesn't understand basic scientific principles. I'm willing to bet she has a vendetta against Burzinski, for who knows what reason. Perhaps she "shilled" with him on a prior engagement?
-
10/24/2011 2:15:00 PM
Dear Mr. Merola,
Thank you, for making this documentary possible. You know the magnitude of your accomplishment.
Dear Ella Taylor,
Wow, Ella Taylor, you should receive a Pulitzer prize for such a compelling report. Human beings like yourself are deemed “just like cattle”. Hope one day you'll wake up from just being part of the heard and become someone that actually thinks, instead of mowing the pasture.
-
10/24/2011 12:07:00 AM
I may watch the film. I am interested in cancer but haven't been interested enough in Burzynski to watch the film.
Some have questioned my personal stake in any of this, here it is:
I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2003 and went through treatment in a clinical trial. Eight years later, knock on wood, I appear to be cancer free.
I am an independent computer programmer. Since 1991, one of my most important clients has been the Office of Communications and Education of the National Cancer Institute. I am not paid by anyone to comment on Burzynski or any other cancer topics. I am paid to write programs that manipulate XML documents, bibliographic citations, and relational database data that eventually wind up on http://www.cancer.gov.
I am also very active in a couple of prostate cancer support groups. However that is entirely independent of my NCI work, is not paid by them, and is not even known to any of my supervisors there.
Do I have a personal interest in the subject of our discussion? The answer is No in the sense that I have no financial or career stake. My clients at NCI have no idea that I participate in cancer related discussions on the Internet. They certainly don't pay me to do that and I have no reason to believe that if they found out, it would have any impact on my future career at NCI. My work on behalf of cancer patients is done outside of paid time and is essentially invisible to them. Whether I endorsed or opposed NCI activity or Dr. Burzynski's activity in Internet postings would probably not even be noticed by them.
Frankly, I don't know how much of a future I have at NCI anyway. I am 65 years old. I am a contractor. Although I like to work and hope to keep working, I will be very lucky to survive the budget cuts that are likely to come when the congressional "super committee" completes its work and slashes the Federal budget.
In a different way, I do have a personal interest in the issues of cancer research. For one thing, I have a great deal of respect for the people I have met at NCI. There are people there earning government salaries that I suspect are way below what Dr. B makes, but are doing important research, publishing their findings with no personal patents or royalties on what they have done, and working every day to help patients and their families. They are saving lives.
It bothers me when I see people attack the NCI as a collection of bureaucrats who only care about the profits of drug company sponsors. I know for a certain fact that isn't true. If anyone is looking for heroes of health care and medical research, stop by the Clinical Center of the NCI in Bethesda. Have a look at the patients, the doctors, the nurses, the staff. There are lots of heroes there.
In another sense, I also have a personal interest because of my own efforts to help prostate cancer patients and families. I've been working at that for eight years, since my own diagnosis and treatment. I have probably put in an average of 10 hours a week on a strictly voluntary basis for many years working on Internet cancer support groups. It's important to me. I care about cancer patients and I bitterly resent the many quacks who prey on cancer patients, making money selling quack cures that often result in the deaths of their patients.
The vast majority of patients aren't able to evaluate the treatments that are offered to them. How is a layman to evaluate the difference between docetaxel and laetrile, or between leutenizing hormone releasing hormone agonists and unspecified phytosterols in PC-SPES? All they know for sure is that they have a potentially terminal illness and there is an excellent chance that they are soon going to die, probably in enormous pain and complete disability. They are desperate and their desperation makes them easy marks for people who couldn't care less about what happens to them or their spouses or their children but are greedy for the 5 or 10 or 20 or 50 thousand dollars they can easily get from them, with no danger to themselves and not that much hard work.
There are a LOT of unscrupulous medical practitioners out there. Some of them sell conventional treatments but deliver them in slipshod ways that don't work all that well or can be predicted in advance not to work. Some of them sell unapproved treatments that have not been proven to work, but are easy to sell to patients who have been told that they're going to die and there isn't anything that can be done for them except hospice and pain killers.
Is Dr. Burzynski a quack? I don't know. However I find that many of the practices highlighted in Pjlandis' posting to be suspicious and disturbing. I am disturbed by the large number of "clinical trials" he runs, none of which have yet resulted in new drug applications. I am disturbed by the unwillingness to work with other institutions. I am disturbed by the opacity of his overall results. i am disturbed by the high prices he charges to patients for entry into clinical trials (my own clinical trial was free to patients.)
So while I don't know if he's a quack, I'm suspicious. I'm not at all ready to call him a hero who is fighting the good fight against monster drug companies and bureaucrats. I see at least a significant possibility that he is the opposite of that.
-
Taylor M Colbert 10/23/2011 3:02:00 PM
Alan Meyer- I see you've been commenting for several months. It's obviously an important issue to you, so watch the movie already....
-
10/23/2011 6:18:00 AM
Gotta watch the film, Alan. You'll get your sources. Also, nobody really knows how Aspirin works, it just does. All you can prove is that it isn't harmful to people. Why couldn't the same apply to Burzynski's patents?
-
10/23/2011 6:13:00 AM
It would have been nice, Alan, if you'd disclosed that you work for the National Cancer Institute much earlier. If you've watched the film by now you might understand why.
-
10/23/2011 5:24:00 AM
I haven't watched the film and won't comment on it, but I do think that there's a lot of confusion about Burzynski and his relationship to the FDA.
To the best of my knowledge, the FDA has never "had to admit that this doctor's treatment works." I don't know what you mean by saying that the FDA is "working with him". It is my impression that the FDA publishes regulations that must be complied with in order to register a trial. If you conform to the regulations, they have to register your trial, even if they hold their noses while they do it. I have seen no evidence that the FDA is endorsing Burzynski's work. I don't think that they ever endorse any trials by anyone. The real FDA endorsement is approval on a new drug application (NDA) - which allows the drug to be prescribed for patients outside the context of a clinical trial. To the best of my knowledge, the FDA has never approved an NDA from Dr. B and Dr. B has not submitted one in many years, in spite of years of clinical trials.
I understand the frustration of those who believe that Dr. B's treatment works. But I think it's a mistake to suppose that all of those people who think it has not been shown to work are being paid to oppose him, or that they are "village idiots". There are some very smart people, including some very well respected cancer experts, who are not impressed by Dr. B's methods or results.
I have no strong opinion of Dr. B's treatment. I don't know enough about it to have one. However I am put off by his methods. I think many of Pjlandis' comments are on target. Dr. B very clearly seems to be running "clinical trials" because he has been ordered by the FDA to stop treating patients with unapproved drugs outside the context of clinical trials. So he goes through the motions of running trials and follows all of the legal forms. He's made it work for him in a big way. But compared to all of the other clinical trials I've seen (and I was in a couple of them myself as a cancer patient and have investigated many others) what he seems to be doing looks an awful lot more like treatment for payment than scientific research. It looks to me very much like he's gaming the system.
I know a lot of people are going to call me an idiot and a paid stooge for drug companies and bureaucrats who hate Dr. B. because he has a cure and they don't. So be it. All I can say is that everything I have written above was written in good faith. If it's wrong then it's wrong, but I don't think I have a closed mind and I am certainly neither a paid stooge nor a village idiot.
-
10/22/2011 10:05:00 PM
Even the FDA had to admit that this doctor's treatment works! They are working with him on the 3rd phase of clinical trials. You should actually research what the hell you are talking about before falsely labeling this wonderful man a quack. Who's payroll are you on? They should rename this "The Village Idiot"
-
Pjlandis 10/21/2011 5:11:00 AM
I think the movie (which I have seen, streaming on Netlflix) seriously distorts the lawsuits against Burzynski and the patent stuff is a smokescreen. Burzynski owns the patents he claims cure cancer, the problem is he hasn't been able in 30 years to perform one valid study showing that his treatment works. The safety of the drug can only be indirectly gleaned because he has never been able to publish a valid safety trial which a high school science teacher can tell you, among other things, requires a control group and follow-up with patients none of which Burzynski has performed. The Houston Press has a great article where doctors treating Burzynski's patients are amazed to find out they were listed as co-investigators in studies they never heard about or declined to participate in.
So, the legal case. Burzynski was selling his drugs and marketing them before showing that they were even safe much less effective. That was 1987. After the case the FDA tried to help Burzynski perform a scientifically valid trial but he refused. Nothing has changed. If you read the studies Burzynski has published in Pubmed since then they tell you almost nothing because he doesn't report his methods and apparently doesn't use statistical analysis beyond calculating percentages which mean nothing without more information.
Burzynski does not treat patients, he enrolls them in very expensive clinical trials and those who don't die or seek proven treatment (a number we don't know because none of his published results mention them. Note those that are mentioned come from groups of barely 18 with different cancers and only one endpoint, yet he's been treating people for 30 years! There should be thousands!) become very emotional spokesperson.
If he can cure cancer, he's the one preventing it from being used all over the world and he has blood on his hands. If he can't, he's a charlatan and I think Dante should develop a special place in hell for the good doctor.
And as for price, try an internet search. At least two people are soliciting donations to cover costs of 160,000 British Pounds and 200,000 US. That money alone could fund enough research to prove the drugs effectiveness yet I doubt we will see any compelling results, aside from moving, yet not helpful, emotional testimonials.
Also nice to note, Burzynski is also the miracle creator of a wrinkle cream for those cancer worry wrinkles.
-
10/20/2011 6:46:00 PM
I am in healthcare and can validate the strong political pressures on regulations that eliminate competition and promotes monopolization of proceedures and technology. This is an honest account of such abuse of the legal system to gain financially that I really doubt you spent much time in your review. Kind of upset I've wasted so much time (1:30 sec) on your site!
-
Hale0019 10/20/2011 5:57:00 PM
"Quackometer", how cute. Just out of the sake of curiosity, did you actually watch this documentary? My guess is not. It is also my guess, that your "view" on this subject was most likely not your own, but the Cliff notes version you were given by whomever wanted you to write your trash critique. So I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you are ignorant, and not stupid. For the record, Burzynski's innovative method HAS BEEN APPROVED by the FDA for clinical trials. Phase 1 and 2 trails have already undergone scrutiny and have been approved, Phase 3 starts this year (2011). It is really too bad that had the FDA not decided to fight Dr. Burzynski, we may have had this cure 14 years ago.
-
tc212 10/20/2011 5:52:00 AM
Did you even bother to watch the movie you just reviewed? Did you even bother at the very least googling the...how did you respectfully refer to the undeniably proven life-saving treatment, antineoplaston? Oh yes, "Treatment derived from human urnine", which it is.... At least you were accurate with one thing. How very ignorant of you to stoop so low as to base an entire review on the word QUACK so you could create a clever headline. I hope you never know, come in contact or become afflicted with a deadly cancer, as you seem to lack an once of compassion and common sense, but rather a long list of adjectives. Your review violates every basic rule of reviewing.
-
10/20/2011 12:34:00 AM
You have obvious FDA/PHARMA gains (deep pockets) for trying to undermine the POSITIVE and PROVEN treatments of this Dr. and the SUPREME COURT testimonies of his patients. Were they NOT proof enough? Whereas Dr.s were telling these people say your goodbyes ...these people are now living well beyond the diagnosis through this Dr's treatment! Please try to write about something worthy and stop wasting the precious time of people with a real understanding of the Big Government control over our lives...LITERALLY!
-
10/17/2011 11:31:00 PM
WOW how can you sit there and say this man is a quack when he obviously has patients who would think anything but. some people owe this man their life. For you to sit here and discredit this mans research just so you have something to wright about is anything but tasteful.
-
10/16/2011 7:04:00 PM
by the way i am glad YOU are NOT my Voice
-
10/16/2011 7:02:00 PM
I was appalled last month when i learned that the FDA allowed Monsanto and Bayer to release systemic chemicals in pretreated plant seeds that virtually killled millions of honeybees affecting out food production now this...you need to educate yourself about the root issues and who is paying the FDA not under the table but for ever free man to see...because they presume we wont care. You need to examine the advertisements and contraindications of approved medications from these wh--re hounds and the FDA...then look with a critical eye at the information disclosed in the film...advertisement it is not...documentary it is...what are citizens to do when the truth such as this is suppressed from us? As for the urine remark, its the basic chemical component found in urine just as progesterone is a derivative of cow urine..if you or your wife (depending on your gender) take birth control then hope you are enjoying the benefit from it. You would be better at rating a Children's movie like Rapunzel you obviously were bored to tears with this one.
-
10/07/2011 5:42:00 PM
@Vmtz2001: Let me propose a small clarification. I don't think "supervised" is the right word here. I suspect that, as on this forum, there are some in the FDA that think Dr. B is legitimate and others who think he is not. Having one's trials registered with the FDA only means that the registrant has fulfilled the legal requirements for registration. It doesn't imply any approval of the drugs or the people.
-
Vmtz2001 10/07/2011 11:51:00 AM
Like the writer of this article, you base your judgement on an impression and for no other reason than that
-
Vmtz2001 10/07/2011 11:46:00 AM
How can you be so sure he's a quack? That you find it hard to believe is not a very valid argument. It's one thing to be skeptical, quite another to say something just isn't true
His clinical trials have been supervised by the FDA for over 15 years. My wife was cured of breast cancer by alternative means. So to me, you're the fraud
-
10/05/2011 7:11:00 PM
Ella, it does take a lot of time and effort to go to MEDLINE and other sources. They probably don't pay you enough or give you enough time to be a credible investigative reporter. Since there is so much quackery in the world, the odds are on your side that Burzynski, persecuted by powerful enemies, is just another charlatan, right? Reasonable guess, but you really went way out on a limb here, overstating your guess (you don't have a case) to the point where what you have written is as bad as the quackery you seem to hate so much.
Another possibility is this...
"Antineoplastons work as molecular switches, which regulate expression of genes p53 and p21 through demethylation of promoter sequences and acetylation of histones. They also inhibit the uptake of growth-critical amino acids, such as 1-glutamine and 1-leucine in neoplastic cells. Phase II trials indicate efficacy of antineoplastons in low-grade glioma, brain stem glioma, high-grade glioma, adenocarcinoma of the colon, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The best results were observed in children with low-grade glioma, where 74% of patients obtained objective response, and in patients with adenocarcinoma of the colon with liver metastases whose survival rate of more than 5 years is 91% versus 39% in controls on chemotherapy. Gene array studies will explain antineoplaston-induced changes in gene expression."
-
dans 09/23/2011 2:00:00 AM
Shame, shame shame on you Ella Taylor. With a review like this i know you are not an objective journalist. Clearly you have/had an agenda and what I see it is to defend the pharmaceutical conventional model and/or to destroy natural therapies.
I wonder, does the village voice take money from pharmaceutical cos? Do local hospitals or medical clinics in the NYC area advertise in the Voice? Let's see... I looked it up and the Voice takes advertising from Pfizer, Beth Israel Med Ctr, LEXINGTON PLASTIC SURGEONS, Continuum Health Partners, Med Rite, CITY MD, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, Clinical Trial Media Clinilabs and many others. No publication will ever bite the hand that feeds!!
No where in your review do you mention anything positive about the movie or even question conventional medicine. As an example, how do you ignore the fact that Dr. Li, PhD, a researcher for the National Cancer Institute says that the NCI intentionally (he said "intentionally") sabotages studies for alternative and natural treatments. No where do you mention that the lead researcher for the NCI tried to steal Burzynski's "ineffective" patents
I would assume you would ask yourself - "Why the F would they do such a god awful thing if they were about truly wanting to find a cure?" The only answers Ms Taylor are that either they don't or they will once there is enough money in it for them.
For further insight in to the Burzynski trials and how the twisted health care system works, I recommend reading the book written by Burzynski's attorney Rick Jaffe - Galileo's Lawyer: Courtroom Battles in Alternative Health, Complementary Medicine and Experimental Treatments.
Other books to read are:
Questioning Chemotherapy by Ralph Moss, Ph.D..
World Without Cancer: The Story of Vitamin B17 by G. Edward Griffin
Knockout: Interviews with Doctors Who Are Curing Cancer
Natural Strategies For Cancer Patients by Russell Blaylock M.D.
Cancer: Step Outside the Box by Ty M. Bollinger
The Gerson Therapy: The Proven Nutritional Program for Cancer and Other Illnesses
Beating Cancer with Nutrition, book with CD
BTW I just found this -- http://www.burzynskipatientgroup.org - a website created by Burzynski's patients. This is remarkable and only a true trusted hero would have such an alliance.
Your review is disgraceful!!!
-
Johnamilone 09/17/2011 5:40:00 AM
I couldn't of said it better myself! Another socalled "journalist" reporting on a topic that he/she has absolutely no knowledge of. Well..the world always needs Comics writers.
-
Annacat_s 09/07/2011 8:45:00 AM
I guess there should be people out there like you Ella, making sure that the rich american execs keep on living in their big mansions, buy their expensive cars....while others are losing their houses, jobs and even their lives. Please note the FDA never disputed the fact that this treatment works... they just want to own it for their own gain. Don't let that stop your ignorance though, please keep on "reviewing" movies, at least you're not attempting to be an actual journalist.
-
09/05/2011 6:37:00 PM
I know a charlatan from his face and this guy burzynski has one..
-
08/18/2011 5:18:00 AM
The great thing is this film documents the precise patents for peptides which the US Government is hoarding, having ripped off the good doctor's research... are you disputing that those patients on the documentary now cured actually had the cancers in question?? Seriously...
-
Jaysaw10 08/18/2011 3:32:00 AM
Wow, where's your heart Ella Taylor? Smashing someone who have saved lives and backing
big greedy corporations who kill....way to go and use your talent
-
08/17/2011 5:48:00 AM
This paper is an insult to our intelligence, Taylor!
What about the patents the US government fraudulously asked on the same molecules Dr. Burzynski uses for his anticancer treatment, with atempt to rub this man of his work and previous patent?
It is evidence of collusion between big pharma, FDA, NCI, etc., and the Federal Government; and you, Taylor, you do a bad job when you work for the dark side.
-
08/09/2011 1:46:00 AM
You're right! I was confusing Eric Merola with Joseph Mercola. My apologies to Mr. Merola and to all who read my post.
I sympathize with your family and am sorry about what happened to your Mom. We have an irrational medical system here in which too many people are uninsured or inadequately insured, and in the battle between hospitals and insurance companies the uninsured suffer huge collateral damage. Our medicine for profit system produces lots of innovation but, by most measures, provides generally worse care at much higher prices than the European, Canadian and Japanese systems.
The FDA requirement that Dr. B. only treat people who have failed approved treatments is standard for all experimental treatments. He has not been singled out for that. The idea is that you don't give an unproven treatment to someone who might be helped by proven treatments. Given that the vast majority of unproven treatments never work out, it's probably a policy that is very much in patient's interests. However if the approved treatments only have a 2.4% chance of helping, then I agree with you that it might be appropriate to invoke the "compassionate care" provisions of the FDA regulations that do allow experimental drugs to be used when there is no standard treatment that helps.
As I've said a number of times, I do consider it possible that Dr. B really has something that works - at least for certain specific cancers. If so, I really wish he would go the standard route of moving them through clinical trials and doing what needs to be done to get approval. He began his treatments in the late 1970's and ran his first clinical trial in 1993. Now, 18 years later, he has still not run a randomized trial, nor has he approved anyone else using his compounds to run the trials for him - since the first trial was canceled amidst tremendous acrimony on all sides.
He seems to have thoroughly pissed off the larger medical/scientific community and they have pissed him off. I don't know why that has to be. There are thousands of other medical researchers at work who don't have these problems. If he really has a treatment that helps cancer patients (even he doesn't talk about "cures"), it behooves him to mend fences with the rest of the medical world and do what needs to be done to bring these treatments to a larger world.
Finally, you're right that I haven't watched the documentary. Maybe I'll have a look if I can stand it. However I've already spent a lot more time on this thread than I ever meant to spend.
Thank you for your very considerate reply to my posting. I think we're all generating a little more heat in this thread than we should.
Alan
-
Dsfoster 08/08/2011 7:44:00 PM
"On the contrary, they invest in him or completely buy him out."
Well in this case they tried a slightly different approach. They persecuted him for decades and mocked his treatment as quackery, then we find out that even prior to all this they filed for, AND RECEIVED, patents for Burzynski's discovery. Corruption that goes all the way to the US Patent Office will be difficult to untangle.
You are deluded and naive.
-
08/08/2011 5:18:00 PM
Alan,
Perhaps you are confusing the director, Eric Merola, with Dr. Joseph Mercola. These are two very different people. Mr. Merola, the director, is not a doctor.
You mention those who exploit cancer patients, gouging them of thousands of dollars. But let me ask you something: do you know how much it costs to receive standard, typical cancer treatments if you do NOT have insurance? I happen to know, because my mom went through this very experience. We took her to MD Anderson for treatment of a GBM. Guess how much chemo & radiation cost? Over $160,000. That is not a typo. For a GBM patient with a 5 year survival rate of 2.4%, $160,000...all because she didn't have insurance. You are totally right: many people out there who will exploit desperate cancer patients.
Temodar, the highly toxic and immune-destroying drug they gave her, costs over $300 per pill. $300 for pure poison! If that's not gouging, I'm not sure what is. They should be saying, "I'm sorry, this is the best we have. It will kill cancer cells, yes, but it will also destroy your immune system. Your quality of life will be diminished. It is likely you will still die. You can take it if you want. It's free."
And something else: before we went to MD Anderson, we had an appointment with Dr. Burzynski. Sadly, they informed us that they could not treat her UNTIL she'd gone through surgery, chemo and radiation and failed...i.e., the cancer returned. And trust me Alan when I say this would have cost nowhere near $160,000. Why wouldn't they treat her? Because the FDA had tied their hands in 2009, and stopped allowing him to treat people until they go through standard treatments and fail. Why would they do that when standard medicine has only a 2.4% success rate for GBM's?
It seems you didn't watch the documentary. Watch the stories of people he has helped. I am amused by those who think he's out to gouge people; on the contrary, his prices are very reasonable, and his treatment is non-toxic too!
-
08/08/2011 4:50:00 PM
Actually, Dr. Burzinski has patented his antineoplastons. Do a Google search on antineoplastons patent and you'll find numerous hits, including some that interview Dr. B himself in which he says he patented them.
-
08/08/2011 4:44:00 PM
No, my real name is Alan Meyer. I live in Maryland. I'm interested in cancer both because I was treated for prostate cancer and because I work as a computer programmer for the National Cancer Institute and have had a lot of exposure to cancer information.
I consider it possible that Burzynski is the real deal. I'd just like to see some evidence of it. His endorsement by "Doctor" (he's not an MD) Merola is a big negative in my mind since I consider Merola to be a businessman, not a medical man, who will promote anything as long as he makes money on it. Although I don't believe in guilt by association I would certainly be more impressed with Burzynski if he rejected Merola's offer to promote him in a film.
We all want very much to believe in cancer cures. I certainly do. But we have to beware. There are more than a few people out there who will exploit cancer patients' desperation to extract big bucks from them. Such people are dangerous and unscrupulous. A cancer patient may think he has nothing to lose by going to such a person, but in fact, he could leave his family with tens of thousands of dollars less than they had, can spend some of his last hours away from his family, and might get substandard care in addition to unproven treatments. It's not a harmless phenomenon.
-
08/08/2011 4:15:00 PM
No, my name is Alan Meyer. I'm a 65 year old prostate cancer survivor who lives in Maryland.
-
08/08/2011 3:02:00 PM
Ella Taylor is that you????
-
Knute 08/08/2011 2:42:00 PM
Ella, I'm so disappointed. I've loved your intelligent and thoughtful commentary for years, but this reads like a Frank Luntz-inspired hatchet job against Burzynski and Merola. I watched this documentary for free on the net while searching "Burzynski quack" and other search terms on Google. Thankfully we all have the ability to balance the argument, and given the importance of the subject (full disclosure, my wife is currently battling cancer) I'm not sure how you can so confidently brand Burzynski and Merola as "charlatans", rather than encourage viewers to decide for themselves. The same criticisms you raise could be raised for any Michael Moore, Morgan Spurlock, etc. film.
Given the "content" of most movies playing in most theaters, is the 100 minutes and $12 spent on this film worth any less? Is it really "rubbish" in comparison? Really?
-
08/06/2011 1:45:00 AM
Just the kind of narrow minded view that is all too common in today's society. To completely negate something that you have no experience with is just ignorant. Obviously chemo and radiation aren't the magic bullet and I for one am relieved that someone is trying to find one.
-
08/04/2011 8:18:00 PM
According to the following two pro-Burzynski web pages Dr. B DID patent antineoplastons, and the FDA and various drug companies have also attempted to patent them or related compounds. So I don't think that's been the problem. The source for the information was interviews with Dr. B himself, in which he says he patented them.
http://www.burzynskimovie.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=104&Itemid=86
http://www.cancerinform.org/aburzinterview2.html
-
08/04/2011 7:55:00 PM
These two pro-Burzynski web pages both say that Dr. B. DID patent antineoplastons and the FDA and various drugs companies have also patented or attempted to patent the same or related compounds:
http://www.burzynskimovie.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=104&Itemid=86
http://www.cancerinform.org/aburzinterview2.html
Note that patent applications are often made prospectively. The patent applicant doesn't know if the drug works but they patent it first, then try to see if they can make it work.
-
Susangretz 08/04/2011 7:30:00 PM
Not true. Because he is not using something that can be patented, big pharma would not be able to control it. That is why they want to shut him down.
