Texas Medical Board’s Lawsuit against CAM Cancer Pioneer Dismissed!!

Scale_of_justice_2_newThe state’s attack on Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski is finally over. And some states are even passing laws that protect integrative physicians.

As we reported last November, Stanislaw Burzynski, MD, PhD, is a physician and biochemist practicing in Texas who developed (with his own money) a nontoxic gene-targeted cancer therapy called antineoplastons. This therapy has been shown to help cure some of the most “incurable” forms of terminal cancer.
In the 1980s, the Texas Medical Board (TMB) charged this caring and pioneering doctor with breaking a law that didn’t actually exist, and tried to revoke his medical license. Numerous investigations later—including an appearance before the Texas Supreme Court—found no violation of any law or standard of care.
The FDA, the pharmaceutical industry, and the National Cancer Institute, knowing how promising Dr. Burzynski’s therapy was proving to be, tried to duplicate his invention, then tried to steal his patents—but failed. Despite the fact that two informal medical board settlement panels found that Dr. Burzynski was acting within the standard of care, the TMB refused to drop the case and, earlier this year, made another attempt to revoke Dr. Burzynski’s medical license.
Had the Board been successful, it would have resulted in the closure of the Burzynski clinic, the abandonment of all his patients, and the end of any possibility of antineoplastons gaining FDA-approval. The actions of the Texas Board have been nothing short of disgraceful and illustrate some of the worst problems of today’s special-interest-driven medicine.
A week before trial was scheduled to take place last April, administrative law judges (ALJ) dismissed most of the charges against the doctor. This forced the TMB to reevaluate, and it eventually agreed to dismiss the entire case. On November 19, judges from the Texas State Office of Administrative Hearings dismissed the TMB’s case against Dr. Burzynski for novel off-label use of combination gene-targeted therapy.
Rick Jaffe, Dr. Burzynki’s attorney, pointed to an important recent change in Texas law. In the previous legislative session, the Texas legislature stripped the TMB of its ability to summarily overturn the findings of the ALJ, and Dr. Burzynki’s case was one of the first to come under this new statute. The Board was thus forced to abide by the ALJ’s ruling.
A stunning documentary on Dr. Burzynski’s fight has won numerous awards worldwide.
While there have been some exciting breakthroughs in cancer research lately, Dr. Burzynski is truly on the cutting edge—and this ruling might provide some room for other doctors in Texas to pursue similar treatments.
Unfortunately, this is not the case elsewhere. In most states, the ALJ provides findings, but the medical board is free to disregard them. This is especially problematic because state medical boards are historically biased against integrative medicine. Even when they are forced by the legislature to accept complementary and alternative medical practices (CAM), they still show their bias by targeting and harassing CAM doctors.
The good news is that some states are introducing and passing legislation to protect CAM physicians. Although many of these laws hold CAM doctors to a more demanding standard than conventional doctors, especially in regard to informed consent and harm to the patient, it is a step in the right direction.
For example, in California, Dr. Robert Jay Rowen received a complaint threatening his license from the widow of a cancer patient. The patient had stage 4 colon cancer and his oncologist had given up on chemotherapy. In an email, Dr. Rowen told us, “I did NOT promise anything at all, except to do the best I could to assist his immune system and hopefully improve the quality of his life. He was actually referred to me for IV vitamin C and integrative therapies [oxidation treatment]. The couple specifically requested these from me. And, the wife signed all the informed consents as witness to her husband!” While his physical condition improved temporarily, he chose not to return citing a desire to attend a clinic that took insurance. So, he eventually died. Four months later Dr. Rowen discovered that his widow had filed a complaint with the state medical board alleging abandonment and negligence.

Fortunately, Dr. Rowen had himself helped to pass a California statute protecting integrative physicians so long as informed consent is given and there is a “reasonable” basis for the CAM therapy. Dr. Rowen invited the California medical board to look into the case:

I was called in for an “interview” with a senior investigator and a seasoned cardiologist who does professional questioning at these interviews. I will admit I was treated with dignity and respect. I was questioned on ALL my oxidation methods, the science and rationale, since I did them all with this patient, including direct intravenous gas administration. I was questioned on the supplements, on informed consent, and even charting and signing off on notes….

Then [the investigators] got a chance to review a case with an identical cancer that I was simultaneously treating. This patient was 20 years older (76), and his colon cancer, with huge [metastases] to the liver, was terminal. He had only a few weeks (at best) to live….The board’s cardiologist looked at the scans and blood tests I showed him that proved a 100% remission of terminal end-stage cancer, and shook his head side to side, exclaiming, “That’s just unheard of!”

Fortunately, the case was closed—in Dr. Rowen’s favor. This would probably not have occurred without the protections provided by the California CAM statute. It’s especially significant since this was one of the first times that oxidation treatment was reviewed by a major state, and accepted as a reasonable integrative treatment.

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22 comments

  1. Awesome news that I will share w all that I know. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Thank goodness for those that are walking the front lines helping to turn this broken system around. When we all start to care more about people than we do about the dollar, real change and progress will happen rapidly. There is strength in numbers and I’m happy to say that you count on me every time to help make this all possible.

  4. Burzynski isn’t the only doctor who was the subject of a witchhunt. In the last year I had the fortune to find a doctor in OK who treated my breast cancer ion 5 days with hyperthermia. I’m not the only patient whom she helped. My tumor is now totally gone without the mastectomy that my doctors wanted to do. Unfortunately, the FDA closed her down by ransacking her office, stealing all her equipment, supplies, records, and money. The charges were bogus and now the patients who were undergoing treatment can’t finish. Worse yet, there was a trial without her present and she was found guilty without the ability to defend herself!!! This is a violation of our constitutional rights to a trial by jury. It is really criminal what our government does in the name of protecting consumers. She is desperately seeking a lawyer that can help her. To find out more about this case go to http://www.LaseMedInc.com There is also a petition to the FDA. on http://www.Change.org

  5. It is about time that Dr. Burzinski’s good name was cleared and his medical innovations accepted for what they are, the wave of the future. Let’s hope the insidious harassment by the TMB stops permanently so this man can concentrate on healing those who are terminally ill, and others can carry on his work for the good of humanity.

  6. This has been going on for years. Several Doctor’s were involved in supporting Dr. Burzynski as the witch hunt went on to remove his license. I have not taken a RX drug for over 30 years and only
    see a medical Dr. once a year. Some are very good, some are only interested in writing RX’s over and over again. Many drugs are put on the market with only minimum research and hardly any have been tested against the reaction to each other. As health care becomes much more expensive I hope we will see more and more people relining on alternative doctors to care for them. I followed this
    for several years and was elated to read your article regarding this good Doctor.

  7. Would you please consider writing a letter of congratulations and support for the people you highlight in such instances, so these great pioneers, brave souls, heroes and heroines can receive our heartfelt thanks and goodwill? My recommendation is that it be a general one we can sign and at the same time also provide our own comments.
    Thank you for all the extraordinary work YOU do with such vigilance and grace on behalf of all of us for a much better world.
    Sincerely,
    Rachael Rocamora

  8. Yea for Dr. Burzynski. It’s gonna be a continuing fight, but we can win over time–we the people. After all, it’s we-the-people who are being treated for the diseases that the medical establishment is not helping in real terms.

  9. Congratulations Dr. Burzynki’. I lost my young sister to bone cancer this year. She was a nurse of 35 years at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey. Their affiliation in the area of chemotology was the Cancer Institute of NJ. I learned about your amazing work in a book Curing Cancer. Suzanne Summers talked in great detail and belief that you were the one who saved her life. I tried on nurmerous occassions to get my sister to try another approach. The hospitals she was involved with basically chemotized her. My once radiant, positive, and hardworking sister, became of a slave to her Oncologist who experimented on her with all the new wonder drugs and they all proved fatal. After they used up all their experimental drugs they sent her home to die. Her body was a thin shell, her spirit erased. She had a hospice person who bathed her daily and a nurse who came to change her morphine patch and make sure she got her daily supply of the Oxies. Let me add my mother died 26 years ago of cancer, although her Oncologist had a better bedside manner. You can be sure that if I ever get sick I would visit a vet before an oncologist. Better yet, a doctor of your knowledge and experience. Chemo kills, and the race for the cure is to con people to support a cause they will never let us win. Keep fighting you have my support! For Pat RIP!

  10. Is there a clearing house for the status of informed-consent legislation like this in other states?
    I am hearing some new terms for integrative medicine, e.g., functional medicine.
    My feeling about using “functional medicine” is that it changes the frame and could make improved function, from the patient’s perspective, something that it would be much harder for closed medicine to avert its eyes from.

  11. Congratulations to both these doctors. Although the State of Florida has a statute declaring alternative medicine to constitute “the practice of medicine,” the mechanism for introducing integrative physicians into hospitals is not well established. The system is biased toward traditional medicine with its associated board examinations despite overwhelming scientific evidence as to the efficacy of such practices as mind body healing / medicine. We physicians need to make further progress in the direction of introducing alternative care into hospitals. Yes, it has started in some prominent institutions, but it needs to be more widespread.
    And payment systems need to recognize these modalities as legitimate medical care. Isn’t it interesting that “off label” use of existing pharmaceuticals is tolerated by medical boards, but alternative therapies that have proven efficacy are not paid for by the system?

  12. We have watched from afar, in Australia, the attacks from all those organizations with vested interests in the perpetuation and expansion of cancer illness, diagnosis, pharmaceuticals and other treatments, on Dr Burzynski and his amazing works. We now say Congratulations to Dr Burzynski and all his team. May this mark a significant moment in turning around the cancer industry and allowing people to find real help for loved ones with cancer.
    Well done Dr Rowan too.

  13. Over the years I have heard many people say “They don’t want to find a cure for cancer, it’s makes too much money”. Maybe they are correct?

    1. More and more of US have started to figure that one out. Those creeps who ultimately control our health have tried to shut down, imprison, and have even had the help of the IRS to keep these types of REAL medicines from US people on more than one occasion.
      Its probly one of the reasons health insurance is so expensive too…of course WE cant have any cheap and effective cures, what would Big Pharma do then! (and congress will make damn sure of it too)
      Good health to all, in-spite of those who would have it otherwise.

  16. I am encouraged medical science innovation withstands opposition. It used to be the medical society led scientific research and was respected for its leadership. Now it sings elementary rhymes like, “Tick Tock, the game is locked and nobody else can play. And if they do we’ll take our shoe and knock them black and blue”. The FDA is nothing more than a marketing agent for the highest bidder. Medicine that preys upon the sick and promotes drug management is as infantile as the chanters of the rhyme. The spirit behind medicine that cures and heals is finally winning out over mean spirits that serve only to bully and whine. The latter are not men and women of science, medicine or compassion; instead they are hypocrites who pander to politics and economics and need to lose their license to their license. Bravo to Dr. Burzynski!

  17. Congratulations, Dr. Burzynski ! I am embarrassed at my state for this kind of treatment.
    We pride ourselves in Texas for all our freedoms but when in comes to medicine we are prisoners!
    You need a prescription to breath oxygen and to get any kind of blood test. CAM doctors are loosing their licenses as fast as the evil Texas medical board can take them away.

  18. I live in Texas and have read about Dr. Burzynski on Dr. Mercola’s website. I certainly hope that no one in my family ever develops cancer but if they do, I will steer them to this wonderful, caring doctor who is truly a pioneer.

  19. If Dr. Burzynski can save even one life it’s worth it to fight the system.
    However, he’s saved hundreds from what I hear.
    So why is he being persecuted? Because they can. Follow the money, as usual.
    I doubt that it’s over but I sure hope it is.

  21. Thank you ANH-USA for all your work in educating and fighting for our rights and integrative medicine. Congratulations to you Dr. Burzynski for fighting the good fight, thank you!!!!

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