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.

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.

In honor of Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski’s 70th birthday on January 23rd, 2013, the Skeptics for the Protection of Cancer Patients are fundraising for St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Our goal is to raise at least $30,000 by Burzynski’s birthday, the approximate cost of entering one of his clinical trials of antineoplaston therapy. On his birthday, we will deliver a present to the Clinic, a challenge to Dr. Burzynski to match the total sum donated by skeptics, science advocates, and others who value good research into devastating forms of childhood cancer. The more you give, the more we ask of Burzynski.

Please visit http://www.crowdrise.com/fightchildhoodcancer/ and donate to St. Jude, a fantastic organization that does not turn away patients who cannot pay. 

Check out what the Amazing Randi has to say about his experiences with cancer treatment:

What else can you do to help?

WRITE ABOUT BURZYNSKI!!! Here are some awesome ways, including Google strategies, to get reliable information about antineoplastons and ethical clinical trials into the hands of potential Burzynski patients.

LEARN ABOUT BURZYNSKI!!!

• Supporters often use patient anecdotes to sell his unproven treatments at the Burzynski Patient Group. We have started curating a collection of patient stories at The OTHER Burzynski Patient Group, the ones Burzynski would rather you not hear. Also, these stories can be exported to your own website IN THEIR ENTIRETY via the storify site they were created on. Free content, people. Just sayin’.
• Orac, an oncologist, cancer researcher, and patient advocate, has written extensively about Burzynski at Respectful Insolence.
• Here’s one of the many, MANY FDA warning letters that Burzynski has received about promoting unproven treatments.
• Learn the whole story at Josephine Jones’s Blog. She has kept a comprehensive list of content about Burzynski, his clinic, and his chemotherapy on the web. An invaluable resource!
• You might be interested that the EMPLOYER of one of our members was recently contacted by one of Burzynski’s misguided supporters.