In September, 1991, NCI sent a team of site
visit team to Dr. Burzynski's clinic in Houston. After reviewing six cases,
they concluded that his results in brain cancer were as good as any they
had seen in 20 years.I remember thinking at the time, "Now it's gonna
hit the fan." I knew that such validation would result in a furious
counterattack. And within months there was was an intensification of attacks
in the Journal of the American Medical Association, and elsewhere.
Real cancer quacks are self-defeating. Their unethical behavior refutes
whatever good results they may obtain by their sheer temerity. By contrast,
it has been Dr. Burzynski's insistence on an objective test of his compounds
and concepts (while he continues to treat patients) that has gotten him
into all this trouble. Sensing this, I called the chapter on him in The
Cancer Industry (1989) "the fiercest battle."
It is his insistence of doing things the scientific way that has made
him the flashpoint for the whole cancer war. That is why the enemies of
alternative medicine are fighting so fiercely to destroy him, regardless
of the deadly effects on 300 cancer patients today, and the immeasurable
harm to the patients of tomorrow.
