Connie
and I recently attended a celebration gala in Houston, Texas, marking
Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski's 30th year of successfully treating cancer.
Nearly 600 people were in attendance, many of them former patients
who had been cured at the Burzynski Clinic. Note: I did not say
remission or five-year survival. I said cured!
Imagine a room filled with hundreds of once-terminal patients now
completely free of cancer – or on their way to recovery –
telling their stories, introducing their families, dancing, and
simply reveling in the joy of being alive.
"Fatal" Brain
Tumors Cured
One of the guests was a radiantly healthy young woman named Jodi
Gold Fenton. In May 2000 at age 31, Jodi was diagnosed with a rapidly
progressing stage 3 astrocytoma. Her oncologist told her that this
brain tumor was inoperable and her best hope was extensive radiation
and chemotherapy, which might keep her alive for five years. Without
treatment, he gave her 18 months to live.
Jodi contacted the Burzynski Clinic and started treatment. The tumor
began shrinking almost immediately, and within two months, it had
disappeared. At the gathering, Jodi shared that while undergoing
the therapy with high hopes of success, her strongest wish was to
dance with Dr. Burzynski at her wedding. Five years later, she got
her wish.
Then there was Paul Michaels, who was diagnosed at age four with
a slow-growing, baseball-sized tumor in his brain. Paul's doctors
said that surgery was inadvisable, and they doubted he would live
more than a few years. So Paul's parents took him to the Burzynski
Clinic. Within three years, the tumor had shrunk to the size of
a pea, and Paul was back to rollerblading and roughhousing with
his friends. Today, 26-year-old Paul is cancer-free, works as a
personal trainer, and is studying to be a registered nurse specializing
in physical rehabilitation.
Dustin Kunnari is a strapping young man of 16. I first met Dustin
12 years ago when I visited the Burzynski Clinic – his mother
reminded me how the two of us had sung "I'm a Little Teapot."
At that time, four-year-old Dustin was being treated for a medulloblastoma,
an aggressive brain tumor. He'd had surgery, but his parents had
refused the recommended chemo and radiation because of its long
list of side effects (mental retardation, sterility, severe motor
problems, leukemia) and nonexistent track record of success. After
a year of Dr. Burzynski's treatment, Dustin was free of cancer.
Today, he skateboards, wakeboards, and is looking forward to college.
No More Prostate, Breast,
or Colon Cancer
I was particularly happy to meet a number of former patients who
heard about Dr. Burzynski through the Health
& Healing newsletter. Richard Barniak, a longtime subscriber,
was diagnosed with prostate cancer in April 2004. He remembered
reading in the newsletter about a doctor in Houston who was having
great success treating various types of cancer at the genetic level.
He started his treatment at the Burzynski Clinic three weeks after
his diagnosis and has been cancer-free for almost two years.
When Tracy Edrey, a mother of two young sons, was diagnosed with
breast cancer, she followed in the footsteps of her mother, who
subscribes to the newsletter and had been successfully treated by
Dr. Burzynski for breast cancer. Tracy has been cancer-free for
nearly three years. "I thank Dr. Whitaker for allowing me to
find out about the Burzynski Clinic. I thank Dr. Burzynski for offering
me a place where the staff treats me more like a friend than a patient,
and where doctors go that extra mile. Thank you for working tirelessly
to end this disease."
M.J. Rifkin was admitted to the hospital with terrible abdominal
pain in August 2005. A tumor was removed from his colon, but he
was told cancer had metastasized to his liver and he would require
chemotherapy and radiation as soon as possible. He recalled a conversation
he'd had months earlier with his brother, a Health
& Healing subscriber. "If anyone in our family ever
gets cancer, there's a place in Houston where we should go."
He started treatment in September, and within a few months, his
cancer markers and scans were normal. M.J. found something besides
a cancer cure in Houston: on December 15, 2007, M.J. and Pat Alexion,
his patient coordinator at the Burzynski Clinic, celebrated their
first wedding anniversary. "I am very thankful that there is
a man in California who I've never met, Dr. Whitaker, who led me
to Dr. Burzynski and my wonderful new life."
Cancer: Genes Gone Awry
I know what you're thinking. What is this therapy? How does it work?
And, if it's so good, why don't all oncologists use it? In the 1960s,
Stanislaw Burzynski, MD, PhD, a young physician and researcher in
Poland, discovered novel peptides, or protein fragments, in the
blood. Noting that these peptides were absent in patients who had
cancer, he theorized that they must have something to do with the
body's cancer protection system. And indeed they do, for Dr. Burzynski's
discovery cuts right to the heart of both the cause and the cure
for cancer.
Cancer cells, whether in the brain, pancreas, lung, breast, or elsewhere,
have one thing in common: undisciplined, uncontrolled division that
can destroy tissues around them, metastasize, and cause death. This
is driven by changes in gene expression, chief among them a "silencing"
or "turning off" of tumor suppressor genes, resulting
in an increase in oncogene activity that leads to cancer cell proliferation.
If silencing tumor suppressor genes increases oncogene activity
and spurs cancer growth, then the inverse is also true. Turning
on tumor suppressor genes and turning off oncogenes shuts down cancer.
A Real Cancer Cure
This is exactly what the peptides Dr. Burzynski discovered –
which he named antineoplastons – do. Antineoplastons are the
body's innate defense system against cancer; they normalize gene
expression and prevent unruly cell division. When these peptides
are in short supply, cancer goes on a cell-division rampage. But
when they're abundant, cancer cell proliferation stops, and cancer
goes away. It's that simple.
Antineoplastons explain the inexplicable in cancer. How can a woman
have a normal mammogram with no evidence of tumors, then die nine
months later from rapidly growing breast cancer? Why does another
woman with the same type of cancer survive for years, with or without
any treatment? The answer lies in the concentration of antineoplastons
circulating in the patient's body. Those who succumb to cancer are
virtually devoid of these peptides, while those who have them in
greater abundance are far more likely to survive.
Dr. Burzynski figured out how to isolate these peptides from blood
and urine and eventually how to synthesize them in a lab and administer
them to patients. He first proved the safety of this therapy. There's
no danger of antineoplaston treatment harming healthy tissues because
it doesn't poison or burn cells – it simply gives the body
what it needs to stop uncontrolled cell division. And he has clearly
demonstrated its effectiveness in scores of clinical trials and
thousands of patients, many of whom were singing Dr. Burzynski's
praises on that special night in Houston. This is why I consider
antineoplastons to be the single-most important breakthrough in
cancer therapy ever and possibly the only one we will ever need.
Antineoplastons are to rapidly growing and universally fatal cancers
what penicillin is to pneumonia.
The Cancer Industry
Now, let's look at the other half of the question: if this treatment
is so good, why don't other oncologists jump on board? Here's where
it gets ugly. The paradigm that governs all conventional cancer
treatment is that one must "purge the body of cancer cells."
Conventional cancer treatment is a search-and-destroy mission: find
a tumor, cut it out, poison it with chemotherapy, or obliterate
it with radiation. If there is an approach to cancer that obviously
does not work, this is it. In spite of dramatic advances in these
invasive procedures (if one could call them advances), the death
rate for cancer has not budged over the last 50 years; it fact,
it has increased. Yes, you may hear about cancer patients surviving
longer today, but the reality is that we're talking months, not
years, for most of the common types of fatal cancer.
Despite the fact that this approach doesn't work, it is nevertheless
firmly entrenched and almost universally accepted. One reason is
because physicians are notoriously resistant to change. We're all
guilty of this, but the history of scientific advancement reveals
that the medical establishment is particularly obstinate, and this
is understandable. Oncologists and cancer surgeons spend three to
five years in intensive training to ply their trade. Acceptance
of Burzynski's discovery would nullify those efforts.
Show Me the Money
However, there's another, darker side. Cancer is big business. We
spend more than $72 billion every year on medical treatment. We
pay out at least $15 billion annually on mammograms, colonoscopies,
and other screening tests. And we've squandered more than $200 billion
on research of dubious value since the declaration of the war on
cancer in 1971.
As you can see, an enormous amount of money is at stake. Accepting
"alternative" therapies upsets the apple-cart, and that's
the last thing any conventional physician wants to do. Oncologists
have a vested interest in perpetuating the current system, as do
hospitals and pharmaceutical companies that depend on filling beds
and selling drugs. And cancer research has become so narrow that
scientists and doctors working on completely new approaches and
therapies have, at best, a hard time getting funding. At worst,
they are actively persecuted.
Just ask Dr. Burzynski. Coming up with a new cancer paradigm and
treatment, opening a clinic and manufacturing facility, and attracting
patients from all over would have been a feat in itself. But that
isn't the half of it. He also had to overcome an unprecedented amount
of harassment from government agencies and other protectors of the
status quo.
Dr. Burzynski's Fight
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the medical establishment
have done everything within their power to drive Dr. Burzynski out
of business. They've raided his office, placed restrictions on patient
enrollment, and subjected him to grand juries. Trumped-up accusations
led to a criminal trial that could have put him in jail for 270
years – and allowed his enemies to steal his therapy, which
without question they have tried to do. (If you have a hard time
believing this, read The Burzynski Breakthrough
by Thomas D. Elias. You will be appalled.)
Fortunately, Dr. Burzynski has been acquitted of all charges, but
as some of you may know from personal experience, any kind of trial
is a tremendous financial burden. I have always been proud of the
fact that I am the only physician who publicly supported Dr. Burzynski
when he was on trial. However, I had no idea how much that support
meant until this event.
Mary Jo Siegel, a 17-year survivor of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, was
a cofounder (along with Rita Starr) of the Burzynski Patient Group.
She told the gala attendees, "In 1995, when Dr. Burzynski was
forced to spend weeks defending himself in a courtroom and racked
up astronomical legal bills, Dr. Whitaker offered to help. He told
me to visualize a room full of letters and donations to help Dr.
Burzynski through this rough time. Much to my surprise, mail from
Health & Healing subscribers soon began pouring in. For several
weeks, the postman would drop off bags full of letters, each containing
$5, $20, $25, or more. Keeping up with them became a full-time job!
All told, these wonderful subscribers donated more than $700,000
to the Burzynski Legal Defense Fund. Without this support, Dr. Burzynski
would have been forced to close the doors to his clinic and countless
lives would have been lost." (If you'd like to read the article
that ignited this outpouring, visit the Subscriber Center at members.drwhitaker.com.
Aug. 2008: Bad link. Use http://www.drwhitaker.com/Shared/Subscribe.aspx)
Go Against the Grain
Obviously, the multibillion-dollar cancer industry has too much
at stake to go away peacefully. But what really astounds me is that
the public continues to buy into the nonsense, giving generously
to the same well-heeled cancer organizations that have been failing
for decades! And, if diagnosed with cancer, most people elect to
go along with chemo, radiation, or whatever therapy the doctor orders,
hoping that they will somehow beat the odds.
Of course, cancer is scary, but it's no scarier than conventional
cancer treatments, which routinely do more harm than good. I understand
that it isn't easy to explore alternatives, especially when you
think your life is on the line, and I would not encourage such a
course if there wasn't clear evidence – make that proof –
that Dr. Burzynski's treatments are a cure for cancer. If you or
a loved one is diagnosed with cancer, you owe it to yourself to
check out this remarkable therapy.
Recommendations
The Burzynski Clinic has effectively treated more than 50 types
of cancer but has the most consistent success with cancers of the
brain, breast, head and neck, prostate, colon, lung, ovary, and
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Patients with aggressive brain tumors
often qualify for FDA-controlled clinical trials and can receive
IV antineoplastons. Others may be treated with personalized combinations
of gene-targeted medications, some of them from the antineoplaston
family, with comparable results.
To learn about treatment at the Burzynski Clinic and success rates
for different cancers and to read patient testimonials, visit burzynskiclinic.com
and burzynskipatientgroup.org,
or call 713-335-5697.
Julian Whitaker, MD, has practiced medicine
for more than 30 years and is the founder and director of the Whitaker
Wellness Institute in Newport Beach, California. This story is reprinted
with permission from his monthly newsletter, Dr.
Julian Whitaker's Health & Healing. For more information
about the newsletter, call 1-800-539-8219 or visit www.drwhitaker.com.
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