Andy Lewis of Quackometer wrote a great article here exposing how the Burzynski clinic are scamming parents desperate for a cure for critically ill children … in that article he raised some very valid concerns …
- Burzynski is a ‘lone genius’. Great scientific medical cures rarely stem from single individuals. They are the result of collaboration and teams. Such breakthroughs need to be assessed by peers to ensure that the researcher is not mistaken or overstating their case.
- Burzynski is claiming he has found the ‘cause of cancer’ and his antineoplaston therapy is its cure. Cancer is a name given to many different diseases. There is not a single cause and treatments need to be targeted as specific forms. It is a common quack claim that they have found the ‘single cause’ and they have a ‘unique cure’.
- The ‘cure’ – Antineoplastons – which were extracted from urine (yes – its the piss treatment) – has no good independent peer-reviewed RCT evidence suggesting it is effective.
- Consequently, the treatment is not approved by US regulators. However, it is approved if treatment is part of a trial.
- The Burzynski clinic charges hundreds of thousands of dollars for people to enrol themselves in a trial.
- These trials of this ‘new and pioneering treatment’ have been going on for decades – since 1977. No end appears to be in sight.
- The website Quackwatch has raised concerns about the origin of Burzynski’s claimed PhD.
In reply the Burzynski clinic contacted him and provided evidence to verify the science behind what they are doing … er no, like hell they did. Instead some slime ball, sent a snot-o-gram threat and demanded that he take it down immediately. Andy politely responded …
As I am sure you would agree, it would be unreasonable to demand that I remove a post simply because your client may hold divergent views. However, I do wish to make it clear that should there be factual inaccuracies in my writing or there is opinion that is unreasonable, then I am more than happy to examine the issue closely and make the necessary amendments.
And back comes an even stronger thug-o-gram rant that included threats against Andy’s family, “Be smart and considerate for your family and new child, and shut the article down..Immediately. FINAL WARNING.”
Andy blogged this entire dialog here, and also more here.
What is happening now is what is known as the Streisand effect, so spread the word and please do blog about these Burzynski clinic fraudsters and the bullyboy tactics that are deploying to silence valid criticism. I personally find that I have nothing but contempt for these phonies who are quite happy to defraud the parents of critically ill children.
Should anybody from the Burzynski clinic show some interest in this specific posting, then they should take note that all communications received from them will be published in full and the author referred to the leading case of Arkell v Pressdram.
UPDATES
- These slimeballs have even been harassing a 15 year old blogger. Rhys Morgan writes it all up here. (28th Nov). Marc Stephens, who claims to represent Burzynski, even went as far as attaching a Screen capture of Google Maps satellite view of Rhys house to one of their emails.
- Here is the original blog post by Rhys back on 28th Aug that exposed the Burzynski fraud
- Respectful Insolence, has gone into a lot of detail about Burzynski’s background and the antineoplaston therapy
- PZ also blogs about it here
- http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/stanislaw-burzynski-bad-medicine-a-bad-movie/
Rhys, the really smart 15 years old, has a great suggestion that I fully support … he writes …
Tweet about the Burzynski clinic. You could either write your own tweet or you could retweet my suggested tweet: RT @rhysmorgan Patients need to know the whole truth about Burzynski’s cancer treatment claims: http://rhysmorgan.co/2011/08/the-burzynski-clinic/
OR you could retweet this: RT @rhysmorgan Dr Burzynski does not want you to know the whole truth about his cancer treatments, which is why he tried to sue me http://rhysmorgan.co/2011/11/threats-from-the-burzynski-clinic
Add a link to this blog (http://rhysmorgan.co/2011/11/threats-from-the-burzynski-clinic/) from your website so that it will increase the PageRank for this blog so that when patients search for Burzynski, they discover this blog as well as Dr Burzynski’s propaganda. This way, they can discover the whole truth and determine for themselves whether it’s worth investing in his treatment.