Dr. Green Considers the Alternatives
March 21st's lecture featured Saul Green PhD, a biochemist retired from the Sloane Kettering Institute. He is presently president of Zol Consultants, Inc. Dr. Green became involved in examining alternative healthcare because of his work at Sloan Kettering. While researching Biological Response Modifiers and the Tumor Necrosis Factor, useful in killing cancer cells, Green discovered a similar compound in normal human serum.
Three weeks after publishing this discovery in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the New York Times wrote a story about a zoologist from the Bahamas who claimed that Green had stolen this idea from him. The zoologist claimed that he had been treating patients at his cancer clinic with the same compound isolated from human serum. This man's claims were totally without merit, which naturally outraged Green.
In an unrelated medical lawsuit against this zoologist, Green was called to be an expert witness. After winning the case, Green and the head of the law firm decided to form a database listing the many alternative health claims. Their goal was to look for any missed diamonds in the rough. With a grant from the National Cancer Institute, a team was developed and the work was completed in 1991. Dr. Green said that there wasn't a single effective alternative treatment amongst those that are currently advertised on the market. The database that was developed was offered to the National Institute of Health's Office of Alternative Medicine. They declined the offer.
One definition for Alternative Medicine is "non- establishment." "When your doctor says yes, alternative medicine says no. If you don't trust the establishment, alternative is the way to go." The question remains, "If the alternative doesn't work, injures someone or prevents someone from getting timely proven treatments, who is held responsible?" The answer is no one but the person who chose the treatment.
Advertising is what makes alternative treatments popular, not science. The main marketing tool for alternative medicine is to target those who are afraid. When medical science tells dying patients that there is no treatment left that can save them, these people are the most desperate and fearful of all. They are the most vulnerable to the claims of people offering hope, no matter how empty that offer may be.
Green warned us of the alternative medicine buzz words. Common terms include natural, non-toxic, prevention, wellness and healing. "Heal" is usually synonymous with "cure" but not in the alternative medicine world. According to Michael Lerner, a mind- body healing proponent, "cure" means a complete return to pre- illness health. "Healing" is an inner process occurring on many levels where a person comes closer to God, nature, inner peace or the energy of the universe. The trouble, according to Green, is that when a cure doesn't work the patient can blame the doctor, the drug, or the treatment. When the healing doesn't work, the patient feels as if it was his fault or he did something wrong. Nothing is more devastating for a patient than to feel guilty over the failure of a therapy.
Dr. Green went on to cover many alternative medical topics including homeopathy, shark cartilage, therapeutic touch and acupuncture. His segment on anti-neoplastins represented an interesting example of alternative therapy at its best (or worst depending on how you look at it). "Antineoplastons" are a product of urine that creator Stanislaw Burzynski M.D., PhD states cures cancer. Burzynski is an emigre from Poland who came to the U.S. in 1970. He claims he received his M.D. in 1967, and a D. Msc. in 1968, and that he did an internship, a residency and cancer research in Poland. Burzynski escaped from Poland because he refused to join the Communist Party. He couldn't practice here until 1973 so he spent his time working as a technician in a laboratory for the anesthesia department at Baylor University in Houston.
By 1976, Burzynski had formulated his own theory of curing cancer in which cancer cells are "normalized" by anticancer peptides or antineoplastins. He searched in human urine which contains many peptides. After claiming he had found an anti- cancer peptide, he opened a clinic and treated 21 patients. He went on to publish 200 papers.
According to Dr. Green, there are many problems with Burzynski's story and resume. There is no record of his finishing an internship or residency, and no indication that he was specifically trained in oncology. Medical schools in Poland did not give PhD degrees at the time he was studying. His papers, which were published in Europe, are "supplement" papers. These are not peer-reviewed. He has never done safety or efficacy trials of his antineoplastins. He couldn't have attended a medical school in Poland without being a member of the Communist Party.
As revealed at a recent trial, from 1986 to 1994 Burzynski's clinic raked in $40 million for a useless waste product in urine. It certainly goes to show that these people aren't crazy.