Are Antineoplastons actually a cure or significant treatment of cancer

[Nic sign]

TL;DR

Apparently this doctor has cured thousands from their cancer over 40 years using a treatment that the FDA is not approving.

The FDA has been constantly trying to take away this doctor's license away for 40 years, and many says the doctor is a quack. But apparently there are many patients that back him and claim that the doctor cured them with antineoplastons. Many patients had brain cancer which is untreatable in most cases.

Any experts in this area?

 

[Drakkith]

It is extremely unlikely that it works. Berzinsky hasn't shown that his treatments are effective despite 30+ years of trying, independent researchers have not been able to replicate his claimed results, he and his clinic have been found in violation of multiple health and safety regulations, and he has advertised his treatments as 'safe and effective' despite not having shown that they work and despite their known toxicity and side effects.

This is textbook 'quack' behavior.

But apparently there are many patients that back him and claim that the doctor cured them with antineoplastons.

People's opinions are not a substitute for proper medical research. There's a reason that we don't just take patient polls to approve new drugs, treatments, or anything else medical. Some of these claims could be due to a patient already receiving radiation or chemotherapy treatments prior to enrolling in a study (such as mentioned in the Antineoplaston A3 study on the page linked below). Some are likely a natural remission or stabilization that the patient simply attributes to his treatments.
Source:
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/cam/hp/antineoplastons-pdq#section/all

 

[Drakkith]

To elaborate a bit, here's the section 'Comment on Studies' near the end of the article:

No randomized controlled trials examining the use of antineoplastons in patients with cancer have been reported in the literature. Existing published data have taken the form of case reports or series, phase I clinical trials, and phase II clinical trials, conducted mainly by the developer of the therapy and his associates. While these publications have reported successful remissions with the use of antineoplastons, other investigators have been unable to duplicate these results [10] and suggest that interpreting effects of antineoplaston treatment in patients with recurrent gliomas may be confounded by pre-antineoplaston treatment and imaging artifacts.[11,14,16] Reports originating from Japan on the effect of antineoplaston treatment on brain and other types of tumors have been mixed, and in some Japanese studies the specific antineoplastons used are not named.[9] In many of the reported studies, several or all patients received concurrent or recent radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or both, confounding interpretability.

 

[berkeman]

Thread closed for Moderation...

 

[berkeman]

Turns out this user has been using multiple accounts to post nonsense at PF in the past. They are no longer with us, so this thread is now closed.