Cancer patients saved by alternative therapies are forcing doctors to think agai

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Cancer patients saved by alternative therapies are forcing doctors to

think again ...

 

By Marnie Ko,

Report Newsmagazine,

December 4, 2000,

 

One year ago, John Scrymgeour appeared to be on his deathbed. The

long-time Calgary business-man had all but lost a 10-year battle

against prostate cancer. Conventional chemotherapy and radiation

treatments had been tried, had ultimately failed, and the doctors had

given up. For the first time in his life, Mr. Scrymgeour was an

invalid, wheelchair-bound, barely able to move his legs and dependent

on round-the-clock nursing. But in what many assumed were his dying

weeks, Mr. Scrymgeour learned of a herbal tea dismissed as quackery by

most oncologists. He began drinking it, and has been taking it twice a

day for the past year. Today, at 79, Mr. Scrymgeour is out of the

wheelchair and playing golf twice a week. Blood tests indicate his

cancer cell-count is way down. He credits the tea, named Essiac, for

his second chance at life.

 

 

John Scrymgreour

John Scrymgreour active again.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Ramsum

Dr. Ramsum: Ready to try alternatives.

 

Two years ago Gaetano Montani was diagnosed with small-cell lung

cancer and given a life expectancy of just six months, even under

aggressive conventional treatment. " We were told that this type of

cancer was the most vigorous, and was inoperable, " says his wife,

Carolyn. " My husband's chance of survival was especially terrible--he

had already suffered burns in a fire, two previous heart attacks,

open-heart surgery, a stroke and gallbladder surgery. " But soon after,

the Indiana couple's youngest daughter brought home a box of Essiac.

The cancer specialists more or less shrugged their shoulders, so Mr.

Montani began drinking the tea. Like Mr. Scrymgeour, he kept right on

drinking it. Soon after, says Mrs. Montani, his cancer was gone.

 

Cancer continues to exact a grim toll, but there are a remarkable

number of stories of people suffering its worst forms who recover from

it, apparently thanks to alternative therapies such as Essiac. Their

scientific foundation remains shaky. Alternative therapies range from

entirely unknown to barely studied though promising to utterly

discredited. Still, Canadians and others eagerly embrace almost

anything offering hope against this array of usually deadly diseases.

There will be more than 130,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed in

Canada in 2000, and 65,000 will succumb to cancer this year.

 

A random survey of Ontario breast cancer patients, published in the

Journal of Clinical Oncology, found that 67% of respondents were using

alternative medicine. Americans are estimated to be spending a

staggering $27 billion per year on alternative cancer treatments. The

alternatives include radical diet changes, green tea, a derivative of

shark cartilage, and a host of herbal remedies. The two most credible

alternatives appear to be Essiac and a compound known as 714X. Both,

interestingly, were developed by Canadians, the first by a nurse in

the 1920s, the second by an ostracized Quebec physician in the '70s.

 

Many certified oncologists continue to be disturbed at the scarcity of

methodologically rigorous studies of alternative remedies. But to

cancer sufferers, these are merely pedantic objections. A major

attraction is that the alternatives are far less physically harsh than

the three conventional approaches--surgery, radiotherapy and

chemotherapy, which critics have dubbed the " slash, burn and poison

trio. " When mixed with hope and desperation, plus the powerful

testimonials of those who say they were cured, the alternatives have

almost irresistible appeal.

 

Although these remedies exude a faint odour of mysticism, the people

who take them seem to be sensible enough. Mr. Scrymgeour, for one,

made his name in Alberta's oil patch, an industry not without its own

purveyors of false hopes and costly tricks. Several decades ago, he

became an entrepreneurial legend, founding and running Westburne

International Industries until 1986, later retiring to Bermuda and New

York. He is also a major patron of Vancouver's Fraser Institute, and a

part owner of this magazine.

 

Mr. Scrymgeour's comfortable retirement routine was brutally

interrupted, however, with the news he had cancer. He found out on

Valentine's Day 1990, and it inspired in him an instant resolve: he

was determined to beat it.

 

He was able to obtain the best of conventional treatment, and it did

initially lower his count of PSA, prostate-specific antigen, the key

measure of the activity of cancer cells in his body. But the cancer

returned last year with a severity that convinced doctors Mr.

Scrymgeour had little hope. In the 11th hour, a friend told him about

a Canadian nurse who had reportedly healed thousands of ostensibly

incurable cancer victims using four common herbs. Today, Mr.

Scrymgeour's PSA count is almost non-existent, and he is fully

satisfied there is only one reason: his twice-daily dosage of Essiac tea.

 

Essiac users are now estimated to number in the thousands across North

America. One user's wife saved what she believed is physical proof of

its effectiveness. Richard Schmidt was diagnosed with bladder cancer

in 1985. The Torontonian had nine operations to excise tumours from

his bladder. At one point, he was comatose, on life support and

suffering a severe infection, pneumonia and kidney failure, all while

requiring another tumour operation. In short, he was considered a

near-hopeless case.

 

Mr. Schmidt's wife Hannelore in desperation sought out a naturopath,

who recommended Essiac. After three weeks of drinking the tea, black

chunks of tumour and skin began passing with his urine. Mrs. Schmidt

preserved 40 pieces in a formaldehyde-filled jar (see photo above).

Soon doctors could find no more cancer. Mr. Schmidt recovered to

thoroughly enjoy his early 80s, gardening and puttering about the

couple's home. At 86 he suffered a stroke and passed away peacefully,

cancer-free. " Essiac brought him many good, happy years, " recalls Mrs.

Schmidt.

 

The family of Luke Stevens will likely put it similarly some day,

although Mr. Stevens is still very much alive. Four years ago, the

then-17-year-old son of a South African chiropractor developed a giant

cell tumour on his left knee, which grew so rapidly it destroyed most

of his upper tibia. Surgeons removed the tumour and rebuilt the boy's

tibia. Four months later, Mr. Stevens' body rejected his bone graft

and the tumour returned with a vengeance, breaking through the skin

and growing into a hideous, fist-sized mass. Mr. Stevens' father grew

disillusioned with oncologists, ignoring their advice to amputate his

son's leg and begin massive chemotherapy.

 

Then the elder Stevens heard about 714X. Developed by Dr. Gaston

Naessens, a French-born scientist living in Rock Forest, Que., 714X is

a mixture of nitrogen, camphor and mineral salts. It is administered

via into the lymph node in the right side of the groin. Working on the

lympatic system and supplying nitrogen to cells, 714X is believed to

aid the body's defence systems.

 

Now 77, Dr. Naessens also claims to have invented a revolutionary,

dark-field microscope he calls a somatoscope, which permits the unique

and unprecedented observation of living blood. This, he says, led to

his discovering a primitive biological entity which he takes to be a

precursor to DNA. He labelled it a somatid, and after comparing the

blood of healthy and diseased individuals, noticed that its life cycle

provides an uncanny indicator of the state of the body's immune

system. Dr. Naessens says he can predict the onset of degenerative

disease up to two years before other noticeable symptoms, in time for

possibly preventative changes to diet or lifestyle.

 

At Dr. Naessens' lab, the somatoscope vividly showed Mr. Stevens'

blood trying to fight off a ravenous cancer. He began 714X treatment

immediately. The changes were swift and astonishing: the tumour

disappeared. Subsequent X-rays documented 100% bone regeneration,

considered medically impossible. Today, at 21, Mr. Stevens attends

university and rows on his school's team. He gives all the credit to

Dr. Naessens' therapy.

 

Alternative therapies have stirred up a host of controversies, some of

them remarkably bitter, among both competing purveyors and an

increasingly divided medical community. A growing number of doctors

appear willing to roll some alternatives into their anti-cancer

regimen, if only because it makes patients feel better. Matthew Fink,

president and chief executive of Beth Israel Medical Center in New

York, explains, " It would be silly for doctors and hospitals to ignore

something that will be a large part of healthcare for years to come. "

Nearly one-third of U.S. hospitals with 500 or more patient beds now

offer alternative therapies.

 

In Canada, some oncologists are joining forces with holistic

practitioners to research popular herbal treatments. One example is

Vancouver's Tzu Chi Institute for Complementary and Alternative

Medicine. The institute works closely with oncologists from the Fraser

Valley Cancer Centre, blending conventional medicine with alternative

therapies.

 

Such alliances will also at last help subject alternative therapies to

rigorous study. Dr. Darlene Ramsum, Tzu Chi's research manager,

reports two now underway. A Phase I study on 714X has just been

completed, revealing no adverse reactions. Patients are currently

being enrolled for a Phase I trial of Flor-Essence, a herbal tea

similar to Essiac. Half the participants will receive palliative

chemotherapy while drinking Flor-Essence. The rest will undergo

chemotherapy and receive a placebo. All have late-stage colo-rectal

cancer. In January, the College of Naturopathic Medicine in Toronto

will begin the first human clinical trials of Essiac.

 

Two years ago, a task force of the Canadian Breast Cancer Research

Initiative reviewed available laboratory research into six popular

alternative therapies, including Essiac and 714X. The review

discovered that each of the herbs in Essiac has been shown to trigger

biological activity, defined as an effect on the structure or function

of cells, tissues or organs. Burdock root injected into mice with

transplanted solid tumours, for instance, appeared to inhibit the

tumours. The review noted that much of the research was limited to

individual herbs, which may not capture the true " synergistic

interaction " of herbal blends.

 

Encouraging results came recently for 714X as well, although prying

the results out of the researcher who conducted the study required

litigation. Dr. Naessens' company, Cerbe Industries, funded the study,

but to preserve its integrity, out-sourced it to Toronto researcher

Dr. Diane Van Alstyne, who in turn hired another researcher at the

prestigious Boston Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Lili Huang was

not told what product she was testing. The researcher's in-vitro

immunological testing concluded that the unknown product played a role

in killing tumour cells and appeared to elevate immune-system

response. However, once the researcher was told she was testing 714X,

she " misplaced " the original data and results. Dr. Naessens' company

had to sue to obtain the study it had paid for.

 

The episode suggests professional jealousy and resentment are an added

factor in the ongoing war between conventional medicine and

alternative therapy. Dr. Ralph Moss, a prominent Brooklyn-based

alternative medicine advocate, charges that as long as billions of

cancer-related dollars flow through pharmaceutical giants and research

institutes, conventional medicine has little motive to find a real

cure. Least of all, he notes with great cynicism, one from an easily

harvested weed like burdock.

 

Government health agencies, in their role of protecting the public

from useless or harmful products, represent another major obstacle to

acceptance of alternative therapies. Dr. Naessens, for one, has

experienced vicious and almost uninterrupted resistance in his nearly

three-decade fight to have 714X granted official drug status. Although

he has some influential supporters, he was twice arrested and fined

heavily for practising medicine without a licence.

 

After three of his cancer patients died, Dr. Naessens was charged with

criminal negligence causing death. He was acquitted, perhaps because

the prosecution's claim that 714X caused the deaths of patients

written off by conventional medicine was a tad dubious. An uneasy

truce was reached in 1990, when Health Canada made 714X legally

available through its Special Access Program. The seriously ill can

order the product through a physician, and 15,000 Canadians have

already done so.

 

Essiac once faced the same predicament, but its manufacturer adroitly

sidestepped its foes by re-labelling Essiac a health food supplement,

with no medical claims. For this reason, Essiac can be purchased

easily, and sales are well into the millions. A 12-week supply from

manufacturer Essiac International sells for about $360. 714X,

meanwhile, in Canada costs $100 for a 21-day program of daily s

(hypodermic needles are extra). 714X is sold in 55 countries.

 

Many oncologists readily admit conventional cancer treatment is

usually not a cure. Cancer surgery is painful and often disfiguring.

Chemotherapy causes nausea, vomiting, festering sores, loss of

appetite, hair loss and gradually diminishing white blood cell counts,

forcing many patients to discontinue therapy. Less widely-known side

effects are reproductive abnormalities, liver and chromosomal lesions,

and cardiac damage. Surveys have revealed the shocking statistic that

80% of oncologists would not follow their own treatment protocol.

Worst of all, the recurrence rate for cancer is distressingly high;

even amputating a limb does not guarantee the cancer will not show up

elsewhere.

 

Astronomical sums have been poured into conventional cancer research,

drug development and upgraded radiation equipment, with only limited

effect. If current trends continue, cancer death rates will easily

surpass those of cardiovascular disease within 10 years. As it stands,

one out of every three women and two out of every five men will

develop cancer during their lifetime.

 

But many physicians and oncologists remain sceptical of what role, if

any, alternative therapies might play in the fight. Many doctors

translate the ancient dictum " First, do no harm " into " If in doubt,

don't do anything. " They fear alternative therapies are at best clever

ways to separate desperate people and their loved ones from their

money. At worst, they could be poison.

 

History is littered with tragic examples. A 19th-century treatment for

leprosy, for example, later proved to be largely arsenic. Dr. Lloyd

Oppel, a White Rock, B.C., physician, slams medical journals for

" bending over backward to accommodate articles on unconventional

treatments. " The majority, he believes, have " no scientific basis and

at best offer false hope. "

 

Nor has it helped that alleged panaceas pop up with distressing

regularity, gaining a near-fanatic following before being discredited.

In the '40s, s of useless Koch Antitoxins made headlines. Krebiozen,

concocted from the blood of horses inoculated with a disease-causing

fungus, was in vogue in the same decade. In the '50s, it was the

Hoxsey herbal cure, which actually employed one of Essiac's herbs.

Laetrile attracted thousands in the '70s, only to collapse in

disrepute, and immuno-augmentative therapy was a buzzword in the '80s.

Some people still believe in these remedies, but medical science

insists they do not work.

 

To a man like John Scrymgeour, back from the brink of the grave, these

people should stop defending old turf and take another look. " My whole

tumour is practically gone, " he declares. " Now, my urologist has put

other patients on Essiac. I'm the proof. A year ago, my legs were like

lead. " Mr. Scrymgeour still walks with a cane, but only by choice. " I

get great respect in the streets of New York with my cane, " he

chuckles. " People open doors for me. "

 

Just what's in Essiac?

 

The four main botanicals in Essiac tea--sheep sorrel, burdock root,

the inner bark of slippery elm and Indian rhubarb--are each purported

by herbalists to have beneficial effects. Sheep sorrel acts on the

endocrinal system. Burdock root apparently eliminates free radicals

and purifies the blood. Slippery elm is believed to dissolve mucous

deposits in tissue, glands and nerve channels, soothing inflamed

membranes and organs. And Indian rhubarb reportedly helps the body,

especially the liver, rid itself of wastes and toxins.

The Ojibwa Answer to Cancer

 

The cancer treatment known as Essiac dates back 80 years in its known

form, and may be hundreds of years older than that. In the 1920s, a

Canadian nurse named Rene (pronounced Reen) Caisse met a woman whose

breast cancer had apparently been healed by a tea brewed from herbs

provided by an Ojibwa Indian medicine man. Mrs. Caisse wrote down the

formula and later used it to treat thousands of cancer sufferers. She

called it Essiac, her name spelled backwards.

 

Even then, conventional medicine considered Essiac quackery.

Throughout her life, the nurse faced numerous charges of practising

medicine without a licence. Health officials repeatedly tried to shut

down Mrs. Caisse's Bracebridge, Ont., clinic. But each time,

well-placed sympathizers or her legions of supporters intervened. In

1938, 55,000 signed a petition in her favour.

 

Mrs. Caisse continued to treat patients at no charge for decades--an

estimated total of 40,000. She claimed to have performed experiments

on mice that suggested Essiac's benefits, but no official or clinical

trials were ever performed. She adamantly refused to provide the

miracle tea's recipe to authorities, fearing they would misuse it. But

shortly before her death in 1978, by now well into her 90s, she

relented, selling the recipe to Resperin Corporation, now Essiac

Canada International, which owns the trademark for Essiac.

 

Dozens of would-be competitors have since tried to capitalize on

cancer sufferers' growing belief in Essiac, trotting out claimed

duplicates or imitations. Their rivalry is fierce, with insults and

litigation threats flying freely. Los Angeles chiropractor Gary Glum

maintains he obtained Mrs. Caisse's original recipe from her friends.

Dr. Glum penned Calling of an Angel, one of several Caisse biographies.

 

He apparently felt no similar calling, however, reportedly charging

$560 for two cups of dried herbs claimed to be Essiac. Earlier this

month, Dr. Glum ceased sale of both book and herbs, turning to another

venture--seeking participants in the trial of an alleged cancer remedy

of unknown provenance known as Se-Kret, in conjunction with a Chinese

hospital.

 

Flor-Essence is another ostensibly Essiac-like formula, first promoted

by Vancouver radio host Elaine Alexander. Ms. Alexander also claimed

to have the original Essiac formula, which she sold to B.C.-based

Flora Manufacturing. Ms. Alexander died of breast cancer in 1996.

 

A handful of purported Essiac recipes have popped up on the Internet.

They appear to have essentially the same herbs, but in different

proportions. Some Web-savvy cancer patients are even trying their hand

at growing the backyard herbs, saying they can make Essiac tea for

about four cents a day. Essiac International, based in Ottawa, is

quick to point out that in its contract with Mrs. Caisse, the nurse

swears the company alone has her true recipe. Essiac International's

tea is also the product used by the three cancer survivors profiled in

the accompanying story. T.P. Maloney, Essiac International's

president, says he takes Essiac prophylactically, and that he does not

have cancer.

 

Last month, a memorial in honour of Mrs. Caisse was unveiled at the

site of her former Bracebridge clinic. Before a large crowd, Mr.

Maloney presented a bronze statue, paid for by his company, of the

woman who made Essiac available to humanity.