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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burzynski Clinic | 6/6 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burzynski_Clinic | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:17:44.243805+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Legal threats to online critics === In November 2011, a music writer and editor for the British newspaper The Observer sought help raising £200,000 to have his 4-year-old niece, who was diagnosed with glioma, treated at the Burzynski Clinic. Several bloggers reported other cases of patients who had spent similar amounts of money on the treatment, and had died, and challenged the validity of Burzynski's treatments. Marc Stephens, identifying himself as a representative of the Burzynski Clinic, sent emails accusing them of libel and demanding that coverage of Burzynski be removed from their sites. One of the bloggers who received threatening e-mails from Stephens was Rhys Morgan, a 17-year-old sixth-form student from Cardiff, Wales, at the time, previously noted for exposing the Miracle Mineral Supplement. Another was Andy Lewis, a skeptic and publisher of the Quackometer blog. Following the publicity fallout resulting from the legal threats made by Stephens against the bloggers, the Burzynski Clinic issued a press release on November 29, 2011, confirming that the Clinic had hired Stephens "to provide web optimization services and to attempt to stop the dissemination of false and inaccurate information concerning Dr. Burzynski and the Clinic", apologizing for comments made by Stephens to bloggers and for the posting of personal information, and announcing that Stephens "no longer has a professional relationship with the Burzynski Clinic." The story, including the threats against the bloggers, was covered by the BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal). The chief clinician at Cancer Research UK expressed his concern at the treatment offered, and Andy Lewis of Quackometer and science writer Simon Singh, who had previously been sued by the British Chiropractic Association, said that English libel law harms public discussion of science and medicine, and thus public health. In an article in Skeptical Inquirer published in March 2014, skeptic Robert Blaskiewicz chronicled the activities by skeptics to investigate and challenge Burzynski's claim of cancer treatments. He claimed aggressive actions by Burzynski's supporters toward the critics, including contacting their employers, lodging complaints to state licensing boards and defamation. Blaskiewicz pointedly indicated that, although Burzynski had dismissed Marc Stephens, his clinic has not retracted the warnings of the possibility of lawsuits against critics, that it is "a threat that hangs over all of these activists every day".
== Media and commentary == In 2010, Eric Merola, an art director of television commercials, released a film titled Burzynski: Cancer is Serious Business, that promotes the Clinic's claims and describes Burzynski's use of antineoplastons and his legal clashes with government agencies and regulators. In March 2013, Merola released a follow-up movie to Cancer is Serious Business. The Village Voice commented that the first movie "violates every basic rule of ethical filmmaking" and that by interviewing only Burzynski's supporters, the film's producer "is either unusually credulous, or doesn't understand the difference between a documentary and an advertisement". Variety described the film as having the qualities of a "paranoid conspiracy theory" and likened it to the National Enquirer, adding that the film's explanatory diagrams are "simplistic to the point of idiocy". The Variety review concluded that "despite its infotainment look, Burzynski ultimately proves convincing." In April 2013, Burzynski received the Pigasus Award, which is bestowed each April Fool's Day by the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) to "honor the five worst offenders who are intentionally or unintentionally peddling harmful paranormal and pseudoscientific nonsense." The Foundation cited as the basis for the award the high cost of antineoplaston treatments, the lack of controlled trials demonstrating efficacy, the lack of FDA approval on the treatments, the lack of published final results of any single clinical trial, and the existence of FDA warning letters concerning research method safety and possible rules violations impacting patient safety. In June 2013, the BBC's Panorama explored Burzynski in a documentary titled Curing cancer or 'selling hope' to the vulnerable? and argued "Burzynski exploits a legal loophole" by treating patients with antineoplastons "as part of a clinical trial, so the drug does not need a licence" for twenty years. The clinic complained to the Office of Communications (Ofcom) about the documentary, but the complaint was not upheld. In November 2013, an investigative report in USA Today by Liz Szabo accused Burzynski of selling "false hope to families" for years. In an interview with Reporting on Health, Szabo said that her interest in reporting on Burzynski was sparked when she emailed him with questions asking for a response to a book critical of him, and received a legal warning letter from his attorneys in reply. In August 2015, Burzynski was listed by the Houston Press as number 8 on a list of The 10 Most Embarrassing Houstonians accusing him of being "Truly an embarrassment to such a medical city where some of the best cancer medicine in the world is performed."
== See also == Clinica 0-19 Hallwang Clinic List of unproven and disproven cancer treatments Oasis of Hope Hospital Ty Bollinger
== References ==
== Further reading == "John Najarian, Transplant Surgeon/Stanislaw Burzynski, Cancer Researcher". DASH.Harvard.edu. Harvard DASH. Retrieved 7 September 2020. Gorski D (14 March 2013). "Burzynski: Cancer Is A Serious Business, Part 2: Like the first Burzynski movie, only more so?". Science-Based Medicine. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
== External links == Burzynski Clinic