WDDTY: My Master List

I thought it might be useful to keep a organised list of articles on the controversial and misleading alternative health magazine, What Doctors Don’t Tell You.

I aim to add new links to this post as they arise.

Burzynski blogs: My Master List

Here is a summary of information on #Burzynski – which will hopefully be of use to those daunted by the sheer quantity of links on my Stanislaw, Streisand and Spartacus post.

I plan to add new links over the next few days – as more information comes to light.

(EDIT 10/01/13 Make that ‘years’.)

UPDATE 30/04/13 Many of the links are to the 21st Floor, which is currently offline. Most of these can also also be found here, by searching for “Burzynski”.

Did Burzynski lie to the BBC?

In this clip from tonight’s BBC Panorama, Dr Burzynski makes some rather bold and misleading claims about antineoplastons. I think he could be lying.

Cancer quackery still available from Amazon

Amazon.co.uk recently came under fire for selling illegal quack products claimed to cure or treat cancer. These included apricot kernels, dried crocodile blood, a “blood purifier” to help destroy tumours and a homeopathic product said to target genes to arrest tumour growth.

The issue was originally blogged on 21st Floor and by me, here. It was subsequently reported in the Times, the Daily Mail and the Mirror. Professor David Colquhoun described the health claims as “grotesque”, noting the danger that people will believe the hucksters and thereby deny themselves effective treatment.

Those products have now been removed from the site but Amazon seem to have done nothing to tackle the overall problem.

The following are all currently listed on Amazon.co.uk:

Angelina Jolie and opportunist quacks: a Hall of Shame

The following individuals have all written misleading, opportunist pieces on Angelina Jolie’s decision to undergo a double mastectomy. They have used her story as an opportunity to promote their own quackery.

It didn’t take long, did it?

“Dr” Robert O Young: shameless cancer quack

Apologies for the messy formatting. This has been exported from Storify in haste.

“Dr” Robert O Young, the shameless cancer quack, stooped even lower than usual yesterday.

Burzynski: the false promise of antineoplastons

With the support of their local communities, cancer patients are still fundraising to travel to America for antineoplastons, a reportedly pioneering treatment not available in the UK.

In fact this treatment isn’t available anywhere except the Burzynski Clinic, and only to patients who are already on it. Antineoplastons disappeared from the clinic website in January. It is believed that following a recent inspection, the US FDA have closed the “clinical trials” loophole that had been allowing Burzynski to sell these old, unproven drugs to terminal cancer patients.

If this is the case, it is not a fact anyone seems keen to share with families still hoping for a miracle cure. Patients are misled and misinformed at every turn – by the clinic themselves, by lazy and cowardly journalism, by conspiracy theorist cranks, and even by registered charities.

Burzynski sued again

There’s a new case to add to Burzynski’s long list of lawsuits.

On 13th April 2013, Vern Richert, individually and as representative of the Estate of his wife Meridee Richert, filed a petition against Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (BCBSM) and Dr S R Burzynski, dba Burzynski Clinic.

Meridee Richert was a patient at the Burzynski Clinic and passed away on 28th July 2011.

According to Mr Richert’s petition, in January, 2010, Mrs Richert was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Her health insurance policy with BCBSM provided payment for medical expenses in the event of an injury or illness. She sought treatment with Dr Burzynski, who represented that he and the Burzynski Clinic were familiar with BCBSM. The Burzynski Clinic informed Mrs Richert that her policy under BCBSM would cover its services. They also stated that insurance proceeds were slow to be recovered and required Mr and Mrs Richert to advance over $50,000.00 to begin and continue treatment.

Burzynski and Big Tobacco

A guest post by Keir Liddle

In 1977 Stanislaw Burzynski left Baylor University to start his own clinic and continue his “research” on Antineoplastons.

Burzynski revealed in a 1979 edition of Penthouse magazine that his superiors at Baylor College advised him to pursue other avenues of research, discouraging his efforts in cancer research and that his funding was at first decreased and then discontinued.