What can Anton Chekhov tell us about the placebo effect? Chekhov is best known as a great writer of short stories. But he was also a doctor and wrote many tales of medicine and doctors in everyday life. But recently, again, I have seen homeopaths claim that Chekhov “used [homeopathy] and swore by its curative effects”. No doubt, the source for such claims come from the American homeopathy entrepreneur, Dana Ullman. [read more…]
Dr Stanislaw R. Burzynski presents himself as a lone maverick doctor, struggling against the vested interests and great wealth of the medical profession. He claims to have found a safe and effective form of cancer treatment that can save children with the deadliest forms of cancer. But he claims the medical authorities and “Cancer Industry” do not want you to know this and will try anything to shut him down. [read more…]
Discussing the problems posed by unconventional clinics, such as the Burzynski Clinic in Texas, has been a frustrating business. Leaving aside the direct threats from the clinic, it appears that such ventures attract followers with a religious zeal about what they do. It also is clear that the media cannot discuss the issue without framing it around a dying child with all the distortions that is bound to create. So, [read more…]
Dr Stanislaw Burzynski has some problems. His forthcoming hearing with the Texas Medical Board has been widely publicised. It would now appear that he has more immediate concerns. According to the Courthouse News Service, an elderly cancer patient is suing Burzynski for allegedly “bilking her of nearly $100,000”. The charges are horrific and may well finish off Burzynski. Amongst those reported are that the clinic pursuaded Lola Quinlan to embark on Burzynski’s ‘proprietary’ treatments [read more…]
There is a stark and inexplicable difference in how the mainstream media and bloggers have been covering the Texas based cancer clinic of Dr Stanislaw Burzynski. There has been an explosion of blog posts since the clinic starting threatening bloggers who questioned the claims of the clinic, my own blog included. Instead of looking at the claims of the clinic and the ethical practices involved in the long running ‘trials’, [read more…]
This morning, the Observer has responded to the large amount concern raised by its coverage of the Burzynski Clinic two weeks ago. The Observer told the story of how Peter Kay and other celebrities were raising huge sums of money to send a four year old girl with cancer to a ‘pioneering’ clinic in Texas. Except that the Observer failed to mention the controversial nature of this clinic and how [read more…]
What to make of the press release issued by the Burzynski Clinic? Well, the good news is that Marc Stephens, the PR man who threatened my family, has had his ‘professional relationship’ severed. In this statement, we find out that Burzynski had indeed asked Stephens to stop criticisms of his business interests appearing on the web. And to do so, Stephens resorted to threatening bloggers, with the worst example being [read more…]
I have been hinting that Burzynski has been threatening other prominent UK bloggers. Well, that blogger has now gone public. Rhys Morgan Rhys Morgan is a 17 year old schoolboy from Wales. He has a keen interest in quack remedies, having been exposed to many through his own health problems with Crohn’s Disease. He hit the headlines on the BBC last year for exposing the bizarre world of a quack [read more…]
Tonight, the entertainer Peter Kay will be performing the first of two special sell-out gigs in Blackpool to raise funds for a very poorly four-year old girl with brain cancer. The story of how this fundraising event came about was told in last weekend’s Observer. However, the £200,000 being raised looked like it was earmarked to send little Billie to a clinic in Texas to enrol in a trial that [read more…]
Yesterday’s Observer contained a full page, heart breaking story of a 4-year old girl, Billie Bainbridge, who has a inoperable and rare form of brain cancer, Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma. The only option for this aggressive cancer on the NHS is radiotherapy which may reduce symptoms for a few months. Two year survival is less than 10%. It is difficult to think of anything more devastating for a young family. [read more…]
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