{"id":774,"date":"2011-09-23T01:33:15","date_gmt":"2011-09-23T07:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thatcrazypharmacist.com\/?p=774"},"modified":"2012-06-07T12:17:59","modified_gmt":"2012-06-07T18:17:59","slug":"one-last-burzynski-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thatcrazypharmacist.com\/?p=774","title":{"rendered":"One Last Burzynski Post"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

I”m going to post one last article about Burzynski in response to a comment I got and responded to for another Burzynski post.<\/p>\n

I want to make it clear that I have NO affiliation with Dr Burzynski, and reason to be angry about not being able to get treatment for my wife at his clinc.<\/p>\n

The conversation went like this:<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
Submitted on 2011\/09\/17 at 2:22 pm<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

Bottom line from Burzynski critics: the guy has yet to demonstrate that his drugs work. Regardless of FDA conspiracies and the like, no one knows if the drugs he\u2019s selling actually work. The little data he HAS published were obtained using some very questionable (dishonest?) methods. Conspiracy or not, antineoplastons have not been proven to work in any trial. At $20k-30k per month, I feel his patients are owed evidence of efficacy but Burzynski seems to have perfected the art of convincing his patients that they are owed nothing. I wish you the best, and I hope that whatever you\u2019re doing now is working. However, I also hope that, if you do not improve with the Burzynski \u201ctherapies\u201d, that you discontinue them quickly and, even if they do work, share your experiences with your readers. If Burzynski is a fraud, he is the worst kind \u2013 preying on the desperation of cancer patients. If he is not, then why has he been so reticent to publish his incredible results?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Submitted on 2011\/09\/17 at 11:31 pm<\/span><\/a> | In reply to Matt<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\n

Matt,<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you for your positive wishes and feedback.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am by nature a very skeptical pharmacist\u2026 and before I would post anything on this site you have to know that I have investigated it extensively.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, let me be quite clear on this topic.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am not able to get my wife treatment with Dr Burzynski\u2019s antineoplastons \u2013 or other medications related to them \u2013 because I can\u2019t afford it.<\/span><\/p>\n

This really pisses me off.<\/span><\/p>\n

And, I must say that their business practices are probably best described as sketchy.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I am quite certain Dr Burzynski\u2019s antineoplastons work \u2013 at least for some significant number of cancers, and that is something I do not believe I can say for conventional therapies if not augmented by non-traditional concepts.<\/span><\/p>\n

I can\u2019t help thinking of an article I read that was published by a major Cancer Society.<\/span><\/p>\n

NOBODY addressed the data that had been presented.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, ALL the reviewers hid behind the fact that they didn\u2019t like the way Dr Burzynski structured his trials and quantified his data.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was \u2013 in my opinion \u2013 quite a smear piece with NO redeeming value.<\/span><\/p>\n

One must ask oneself why this was the case.<\/span><\/p>\n

I will not tell you why I think it was dealt with in this manner.<\/span><\/p>\n

I will only say \u2013 as a person with extensive engineering, statistical analysis, and process control experience \u2013 that the concept of evidence based medicine is one that is situationally invoked to serve the strangest of purposes.<\/span><\/p>\n

YOU \u2013 my readers \u2013 should be pissed too!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I believe the exchange typifies the difference in perspective between those who are willing to critically analyze and search out data and those who support the mainstream approach.<\/p>\n

You can read what the U.S. Government’s task force wrote about Dr Burzynski here:CongressReport<\/a><\/p>\n

You can also read the later comments of a consultant to that project here:http:\/\/www.commonweal.org\/pubs\/choices-healing.html<\/a> Chapter 21<\/p>\n

You’ll have to study the data and decide for yourself what you’re going to believe.<\/p>\n

I’ve also provided a copy of the abstract and links to a well done study that I think speaks volumes about the effectiveness of chemotherapy here:<\/p>\n

The link to PubMed’s abstract –<\/div>\n

http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/15630849<\/a><\/p>\n

A copy of the abstract –<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol).<\/a> 2004 Dec;16(8):549-60.<\/div>\n

The contribution of cytotoxic chemotherapy to 5-year survival in adult malignancies.<\/h1>\n
Morgan G<\/a>, Ward R<\/a>, Barton M<\/a>.<\/div>\n
\n

Source<\/h3>\n

Department of Radiation Oncology, Northern Sydney Cancer Centre, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia. gmorgan1@bigpond.net.au<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Abstract<\/h3>\n

AIMS:<\/h4>\n

The debate on the funding and availability of cytotoxic drugs raises questions about the contribution of curative or adjuvant cytotoxic chemotherapy to survival in adult cancer patients.<\/p>\n

MATERIALS AND METHODS:<\/h4>\n

We undertook a literature search for randomised clinical trials reporting a 5-year survival benefit attributable solely to cytotoxic chemotherapy in adult malignancies. The total number of newly diagnosed cancer patients for 22 major adult malignancies was determined from cancer registry data in Australia and from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results data in the USA for 1998. For each malignancy, the absolute number to benefit was the product of (a) the total number of persons with that malignancy; (b) the proportion or subgroup(s) of that malignancy showing a benefit; and (c) the percentage increase in 5-year survival due solely to cytotoxic chemotherapy. The overall contribution was the sum total of the absolute numbers showing a 5-year survival benefit expressed as a percentage of the total number for the 22 malignancies.<\/p>\n

RESULTS:<\/h4>\n

The overall contribution of curative and adjuvant cytotoxic chemotherapy to 5-year survival in adults was estimated to be 2.3% in Australia and 2.1% in the USA.<\/p>\n

CONCLUSION:<\/h4>\n

As the 5-year relative survival rate for cancer in Australia is now over 60%, it is clear that cytotoxic chemotherapy only makes a minor contribution to cancer survival. To justify the continued funding and availability of drugs used in cytotoxic chemotherapy, a rigorous evaluation of the cost-effectiveness and impact on quality of life is urgently required.<\/p>\n

A link to a copy of a pdf of the article –<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.burtongoldberg.com\/home\/burtongoldberg\/contribution-of-chemotherapy-to-five-year-survival-rate-morgan.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I”m going to post one last article about Burzynski in response to a comment I got and responded to for another Burzynski post. I want to make it clear that I have NO affiliation with Dr Burzynski, and reason to be angry about not being able to get treatment for my wife at his clinc. … Continue reading One Last Burzynski Post<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancer-treatments-and-prevention"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thatcrazypharmacist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thatcrazypharmacist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thatcrazypharmacist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thatcrazypharmacist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thatcrazypharmacist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=774"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/thatcrazypharmacist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":867,"href":"https:\/\/thatcrazypharmacist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions\/867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thatcrazypharmacist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thatcrazypharmacist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thatcrazypharmacist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}