Re: fake comptosar - slick looking website - doctors don't exist
- From: "dakikos" <garciacm@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 8 Jan 2006 05:26:38 -0800
HERE AT THE MOSS REPORTS
"Miracle cure" scams are unfortunately not at all uncommon in the field
of cancer, but the arrival of the Internet has made such fraud a great
deal easier to perpetrate. This week I came across an Internet "miracle
cure" scam that is as memorable for its ingenuity as it is for its
ruthlessness. I feel it is important to share this information with my
readers in the hope of preventing any more people from falling victim
to this ugly fraud.
Keeping abreast of developments both in the legitimate world of cancer
research and on the darker fringes of the cancer community has been my
life's work. In the course of thirty years of scholarly investigation
in the cancer field, I have seen hopes raised and dashed many times, by
treatments on both sides of the conventional/alternative divide. I have
made it my mission to get the truth to cancer patients, the plain,
unvarnished truth, about what works and what doesn't. I have written
more than 200 Moss Reports on different types of cancer, each one more
than 350 pages long, detailing the available conventional and
alternative treatment methods for each individual type of cancer. For
patients dealing with cancer, a Moss Report on their particular
diagnosis can be an invaluable resource. You can order and download a
Moss Report directly from our website at www.cancerdecisions.com.
I also offer phone consultations to clients who have purchased a Moss
Report. A phone consultation can be enormously helpful in drawing up an
effective treatment strategy and getting one's options clearly
prioritized. To schedule an appointment, please contact Martha Joseph
at Martha@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
AN OUTRAGEOUS HOAX
In one of the most brazen examples of hucksterism that I have ever
encountered in the cancer field, a new Web site, www.cancercure.org,
has announced what it calls a startlingly effective new treatment for
cancer. This purportedly non-toxic cure is said to work on all major
cancers, such as breast, lung, prostate, colon, skin, liver, blood
(leukemia), kidney, pancreas, and brain cancer, including the most
advanced cases of metastatic disease. Pain relief is said to start
immediately and a total cure is generally achieved within six weeks, or
your money is cheerfully refunded. Supposedly, more than 10,000 people
have already been cured and rendered cancer free by this treatment.
This "clinically proven" medicine is said to work in over 95 percent of
those patients for whom conventional radiation, surgery, and
chemotherapy have been ineffective. It is said to have absolutely no
adverse effects of any kind and absolutely no interference or negative
effects when taken with other medications. What is more, its benefits
are recommended not just by numerous patients but by "leading cancer
research physicians." If you surf the Internet in search of effective
cancer treatments, you have probably heard these sorts of outrageous
claims before. But rarely have they been so brazen. What is being
described, after all, is one of humanity's fundamental wishes - a
truly effective, non-toxic treatment for advanced cancer. Promising
such results is the hallmark of a charlatan.
But what really caught my eye was something else. For the promoters of
this site have found an angle that is truly Machiavellian in its
breathtaking audacity. They claim that the "cure" in question is not a
secret potion or a mixture of exotic herbs but is in fact an
FDA-approved anticancer medication called Camptosar (also known as
irinotecan or CPT-11). In their own literature, they have renamed
Camptosar "Cancer Control." They have then given this newly
rechristened "Camptosar" a new list of ingredients as well as an
imaginary set of properties.
And, in another twist, instead of damning the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) for its uncooperativeness, the way most such
hucksterish Web sites do, they present their products as fully FDA
approved. Their most audacious touch, diabolical in its cleverness, is
to direct readers to a phony but official-looking FDA Web site, at
which the government agency seemingly approves of their totally
imaginary product!
What makes this so dangerously plausible, even to wary cancer patients,
is that there really is an anticancer drug by the name of Camptosar. In
June 1996, the FDA gave the major pharmaceutical company Pharmacia &
Upjohn accelerated approval to market this bona fide drug for the
treatment of patients with metastatic carcinoma of the colon or rectum
whose disease has recurred or progressed following standard 5-FU-based
therapy. (The indications for its use were extended to other stages of
colorectal cancer in 1998 and 2000.)
Cancer Control Is Not Camptosar
Because of this clever sleight-of-hand, an unwary reader could be
forgiven for believing that Camptosar had indeed been renamed and was
now being marketed over-the-counter by Flu Fighters, the Boca
Raton-based company that owns the www.cancercure.org Web site. But
Camptosar's name has never been changed to "Cancer Control," as this
Web site audaciously claims.
Amid a veritable blizzard of falsehoods and half-truths, one thing is
certain. Whatever these folks are actually selling, it bears no
relationship to the real chemotherapy drug Camptosar. Apart from
anything else, Camptosar is not dramatically effective in treating
advanced disease. In one recent clinical trial, German scientists added
Camptosar to an infusion of the standard drugs 5-FU plus folinic acid
in the treatment of colorectal cancer. The median "progression free
survival" (PFS) time was 8.5 months with the three-drug combination,
compared to 6.4 months when Camptosar was not give, for a gain of about
two months. The median overall survival time was increased from 16.9 to
20.1 months. So Camptosar seems to add a few months to survival in this
situation (Kohne 2005). Worthwhile, possibly; but definitely not a
dramatic cure for colorectal or any other kind of cancer.
The cancercure.org Web site further states: "Adverse events associated
with the use of Camptosar/Cancer Control may include hyperactivity in
some very rare instances; gastritis, mild cases reported in rare
instances." This is ludicrously untrue. In fact, Camptosar is
potentially a highly toxic drug. It is particularly notorious for
inducing diarrhea so severe as to become life threatening, through
dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, and sepsis (systemic infection).
Camptosar may also cause rhinitis, increased salivation, flushing,
cramping, and other distressing effects. Severe suppression of the
immune system is also common.
So the thought of Camptosar being sold as an over-the-counter agent via
the Internet is both preposterous and frightening. The reality is that
Camptosar must be administered under the supervision of a doctor who is
familiar with cancer chemotherapy, preferably a medical oncologist.
Camptosar is an injectable solution that must be made up to order using
a special polyethylene glycol diluent. (The solution must be prepared
in a glass syringe because it corrodes plastic.) By contrast, this
pseudo-Camptosar, "Cancer Cure," is taken as a tablet and sold in
standard plastic screw-top bottles. So there is little chance that
these two products are related, except in the fevered imaginations of
the people who created this Web site.
Composition
In short, despite ludicrous claims to the contrary, this "medicine" has
no relationship whatever to true Camptosar. Camptosar is a
plant-derived alkaloid with the chemical name
4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole. It is prepared by diluting
9-amino-camptothecin/dimethylacetamide concentrate with polyethylene
glycol. The solution must be prepared freshly, filtered before
injection, and used within 28 hours.
At the www.cancercure.org Web site, the ingredients of "Cancer Cure"
are listed as follows:
3-hydroxy-4-trimethylammoniobutanoate
2, 6-diaminohexanoic acid
carbamoylbutanoic acid
5-carboxypentanoamido-3-mercapto-n-carboxymethylpropanomide
Mercaptopropanic acid
Methylthiobutanoic acid
The first three ingredients are other names for the common nutrients
carnitine, lysine, and D-glutamine, all of which are available
inexpensively and over the counter at drug stores and health food
stores. The other three are so obscure that there are virtually no
Internet references to them.
Effectiveness
The cancercure.org Web site contains all sorts of impressive-looking
color graphs and charts that are linked to various bogus sites
allegedly maintained by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Their
fundamental claim is that "the Cancer Control Medicine...has documented
an overall 97.4 percent success rate."
They also give five-, ten-, fifteen-, and even twenty-year survival
statistics for the various types of cancer. This is odd since authentic
Camptosar has only been approved for a decade. (So where could
twenty-year survival figures come from?) But, no matter. According to
cancercure.org, the five-year survival rate for people with advanced
pancreatic cancer using their medicine is 97.3 percent, ten-year
survival is 97.1 percent, fifteen-year survival is 97.0 percent and
twenty-year survival is 97.0 percent, and so forth. In the real world,
unfortunately, the survival rate for most patients with advanced cancer
in the head of the pancreas is in the low single digits.
So how did cancercure.org come up with these outrageously inflated
figures? These statistics are attributed to the "United States
Department of Health and Human Services, Cancer Prevention and the
American Cancer Society." I don't know what "Cancer Prevention" is
supposed to refer to. But I am sure that both HHS and the ACS will be
astonished to learn that they have endorsed a 95 percent surefire cure
for metastatic cancer of the pancreas and almost every other anatomical
site! In fact, these statistics, like almost everything else at this
Web site, were created out of whole cloth.
Endorsed by "Leading Cancer Doctors"
No so-called "cancer cure" is complete without endorsements from
grateful patients and credible-seeming physicians. There is an
abundance of such endorsements at this site, complete with pictures of
"patients" and "doctors" holding up bottles of "Camptosar/Cancer
Control."
The two most prominently featured "doctors," are Bernard M.
Satterfield, MD, PhD, said to be a physician at the University of
Sydney, Australia and Kennedy Ross, MD, supposedly of the University of
Texas in Austin.
According to cancercure.org, "They both specialize in cancer research
and have completed extensive testing and research into new cancer
medicines. Their work corroborates the test results affirmed by the FDA
for Cancer Control. The FDA approved in February 2004 the Cancer
Control Medicine. FDA test results proved that Cancer Control reverses
and cures cancer tumors in 97 percent of patients."
Bernard M. Satterfield, MD, PhD, is allegedly in the Department of
Cancer Medicine, University of Sydney, Australia. I was immediately
suspicious because Australian physicians receive MB and BS degrees, not
the American-style MD. A search of the University of Sydney Web site
revealed no mention of Dr. Satterfield. A friend of mine in Sydney
called both the University of Sydney and its Westmead Hospital (which
is the University Hospital's oncology division). Neither of them had
any record of this man. In addition, there are no publications by this
supposedly prominent researcher listed in PubMed. In fact, a search of
the entire Internet shows that the only mentions of a Dr. Bernard
Satterfield are restricted to this cancercure.org Web site.
Similarly, there is no "Kennedy Ross, MD" licensed in the state of
Texas. A search of the University of Texas Web site also turned up no
mention of such an individual.
What about the other doctors mentioned at cancercure.org as supporting
this cure?
Melvin Roberts, MD, of San Francisco, CA allegedly "wrote articles and
spoke at medical symposiums promoting Cancer Control as a cancer cure."
His patients were examined periodically, we are told, and his research
was examined by the American Cancer Institute. But no Melvin Roberts,
MD, is licensed as a physician in the state of California. Nor is there
any such thing as an "American Cancer Institute" (a fictitious amalgam,
apparently, of the American Cancer Society and National Cancer
Institute.) The site further quotes an article by Dr. Roberts in the
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), August 2004.
According to both PubMed and the AMA's Web site, however, there is no
such article.
Martin Weinstock, MD, PhD, of Cincinnati, Ohio is another doctor listed
as an endorser of Cancer Control. But there is no Martin Weinstock, MD,
PhD, licensed to practice medicine in the state of Ohio. There is
however a Martin Weinstock, MD, PhD, in Providence, RI, but he is a
reputable dermatologist affiliated with Brown University, and has
nothing whatever to do with this company's product.
Dwayne Robertson, PhD, is said by this same Web site to have offered
"Cancer Control therapy" at his clinic in the Bahamas. "Robertson
claimed that Cancer Control would cure cancer patients by destroying
cancer cells and stimulating the immune defense system. Robertson, a
prominent physician stated that one of his patients appeared to have
recovered miraculously with Cancer Control treatment." But a doctor of
philosophy (PhD) degree does not enable one to legally treat patients,
even in the Bahamas. There is a Dwayne Robertson who played football
for the New York Jets and a Dwayne Robertson who was a character in The
Mighty Ducks. Other than that, however, the only Dr. Dwayne Robertson
known to the Internet is the one mentioned exclusively at this Web
site.
WHO'S BEHIND CANCERCURE.ORG? TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK.
Click or go to the following for some of my previous articles on the
history of quackery:
http://www.cancerdecisions.com/012504.html
http://www.cancerdecisions.com/020104.html
http://www.cancerdecisions.com/020704.html
--Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Prev by Date: Re: therapeutic double-whammy to the tumor while limiting damage to healthy tissue
- Next by Date: Asbestos and Lung Cancer Resource
- Previous by thread: Re: therapeutic double-whammy to the tumor while limiting damage to healthy tissue
- Next by thread: Re: fake comptosar - slick looking website - doctors don't exist
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
