The Houston Cancer Quack

On March 7th, PBS station CBT12 in Colorado is going to air the hagiographic Burzynski: Cancer is Big Business. CBT12 is notorious for using conspiracy theories to raise money at pledge time. It’s a cheap tactic. Last year, they aired the AE911 Truth movie during pledge week. It’s lucrative. Most conspiracy theorists, while they openly distrust mainstream media outlets, seem to yearn for the respectability that comes from being broadcast on them. And when their stories appear on CPT12, and I say this because the station continues to push this garbage, it seems that the conspiracy theorists reward the station.

I have come to expect the exploitation of ignorance on the part of CPT12. When it’s a truther movie, well, it makes PBS look bad, but that’s about it. But this movie has led so many people into Burzynski’s clutches, gotten so many patients entangled in his unpublishable trials and quack “gene therapy”, that I can say with a high degree of confidence that CPT12 is BANKING ON ITS VIEWERS’ LIVES.

Worse, at the breaks in the film, Eric Merola, the guy who contacted my employer in December, will be appearing alongside a spokesperson for the clinic to talk to the station’s fundraising director. This is unacceptable. Nonetheless, CPT12 has taken down misleading alt med propaganda before, so it is worth taking a strong stand and lobbying that they follow precedent and take this down.

Most importantly, one should contact Colorado state legislators who are also cancer survivors and alert them to this upcoming travesty, including state senator and esophageal cancer survivor Rollie Heath (rollie.heath.senate@state.co.us, (303) 866-4872, fax: (303) 866-4543) and state representative and breast cancer survivor Dianne Primavera (dianne.primavera.house@state.co.us, (303)-866-4667).

You might also contact the station, and demand that they either change their schedule or have an independent physician appear with Burzynski’s toadies. You know, because it’s a medical issue and a movie director and PR guy can’t add anything meaningful to the discussion.

Shari Bernson (she’s the host between breaks)
Director of Development
sbernson@cpt12.org

Willard “Wick” D. Rowland, Jr
President & CEO
wrowland@cpt12.org

Station:  (303) 296-1212
Toll-Free:  1-800-727-8812
Fax:  (303) 296-6650

Also, please register a complaint with the PBS ombudsman about the movie being aired at all and this weird little station’s repeated tarnishing of the name of public broadcasting:

http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/feedback.html

We are making only reasonable, responsible requests. PLEASE follow through and contact the station and the PBS ombudsman.

BURZYNSKI CRITICS HAND CONTROVERSIAL DOCTOR A “BIRTHDAY PRESENT”

Skeptical group says the 70-year old peddles unproven cancer treatments to desperate patients

For immediate release:
January 23rd, 2013

Challenge Delivered on Wed, 23 Jan 2013

HOUSTON —This morning, a group calling itself Skeptics for the Protection of Cancer Patients (SPCP) has delivered controversial cancer doctor Stanislaw Burzynski a birthday present: a $13,000 donation in his honor to St. Jude Children’s Research hospital. The SPCP says that St. Jude’s is a well-respected, compassionate institution that does real research into childhood cancers, unlike the Burzynski Clinic, which has never produced the results of a single large scale peer-reviewed clinical trial in a reputable journal in over 30 years, despite apparently having treated thousands of patients with so-called “antineoplastons”.

The group claims that the Burzynski Clinic has charged the most desperate cancer patients hundreds of thousands of dollars to participate in trials of his unproven therapy – trials that have not only ignored the ethical prohibition against charging patients to participate in trials, but have also failed to publish meaningful results demonstrating the effectiveness of the treatment. Hundreds of patients, driven to desperation by their disease, have resorted to begging in the press for money to receive the treatments only to die penniless.

In their letter, the SPCP challenges Dr. Burzynski to counter some of the harm done in his name and  “acknowledge the generosity of cancer survivors, their families and their communities around the globe by matching the total amount contributed to St. Jude, thereby doubling the total gift toward childhood cancer research.” The letter also tells of a former pancreatic cancer patient who created a website (http://burzynskiscam.com/) to document his experiences at the hands of the Burzynski Clinic, only to receive legal threats and intimidation from a clinic supporter – threats that the clinic and Dr. Burzynski have yet to adequately address.

“Dr. Burzynski’s patients are literally dying for a cure. As they undergo his endless and apparently unpublishable medical ‘trials,’ they lose precious time and often empty their bank accounts, leaving their families in grief and debt,” said SPCP founder Robert Blaskiewicz. “The most compassionate thing Burzynski could do would be to close his doors for good, but we’re asking for the next best thing: to open his pocketbook and fund legitimate cancer research for once.”

The birthday card and accompanying letter were delivered to the Clinic on Wednesday, Stanislaw Burzynski’s 70th birthday. The letter is available, in full, on request.

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The Skeptics for the Protection of Cancer Patients is a group of cancer survivors, family and community members, devoted to advancing ethical, promising, and transparent cancer research. For more information, visit thehoustoncancerquack.com or the SPCP Facebook page.