Dan's Journal of Skepticism

Dr Stanislaw Burzynski is a scammer operating out of Texas, United States who sell bogus cancer cures to the desperate and vulnerable. I first found out about Burzynski when he used hired thugs to try and intimidate a 17 year old Skeptical blogger back in 2011. Rhys Morgan was contacted by a person called Marc Stephens;

A few weeks ago, Rhys received an email from a Marc Stephens who stated that his post and tweets were “in violation of several state and federal laws.” and that he “immediately cease and desist in your actions defaming and libeling my clients.”

The letter gave Rhys a bit of a lecture of US law on libel seemingly unaware that they were talking to a 16 year old school boy who was not resident in the United States. The letter ended with the threat, “ I suggest you remove ALL references about my client on the internet in its entirety, and any other defamatory statement about my client immediately, or I will file suit against you.”

“GOVERN YOURSELF ACCORDINGLY.” –Andy Lewis, Quackometer

Ever since this incident I have kept an eye out for this particular scammer so it is a great releif to finally see him charged by the medical authorities.

Fans of Houston doctor Stanislaw Burzynski love him for defying the medical establishment and offering alternative therapies to terminally ill patients.

The latest charges against Burzynski by the Texas Medical Board, which has tried and failed to take away his license for more than two decades, paint a very different picture.

Burzynski has long lured patients from around the world to his Texas clinic by promoting his unapproved drugs as safe, effective and available from nobody else. Yet Burzynski knew that most patients were ineligible for the experimental therapy, according to a 200-page complaint that describes problems with the care of 29 patients. –USA Today

Burzynski has escaped justice for far too long. May we finally get rid of this repugnant fraud.

The official complaint can be downloaded here.

The Burzynski Clinic in Texas which sells false hope to the sick and desperate has recently been told by the FDA to stop misleading the public. Dr Burzynski’s Antineoplastons “treatment” is being marketed by his clinic despite not having the approval to do so within the United States.

Promotion of an investigational new drug is prohibited underFDA regulations at 21 CFR 312.7(a), which states, “A sponsor or investigator, or any person acting on behalf of a sponsor or investigator, shall not represent in a promotional context that an investigational new drug is safe or effective for the purposes for which it is under investigation or otherwise promote the drug. This provision is not intended to restrict the full exchange of scientific information concerning the drug, including dissemination of scientific findings in scientific or lay media. Rather, its intent isto restrict promotional claims of safety or effectiveness of the drug for a use for which it is under investigation and to preclude commercialization of the drug before it is approved for commercial distribution.”

…..

OPDP requests that you immediately cease the dissemination of violative promotional materials for Antineoplastons such as those described above. Please submit a written response to this letter on or before November 1, 2012, stating whether you intend to comply with this request, and explaining your plan for discontinuing use of such violative materials.

–Office of Prescription Drug Promotion, United States Food and Drug Administration.

Despite all the marketing promotions on the Burzynski Clinic website Antineoplastons have never been proven to be efficacious. The FDA is allowing the Burzynski Clinic to experiment with the drug to produce evidence that it works. So far no conclusive evidence has been found to support Antineoplastons but that won’t stop a crook like Burzynski from charging people for his “treatment”.

The Burzynski Clinic in Texas claims to be able to cure cancer with a revolutionary new treatment. However this treatment has never been proven to work and its “pioneer” Dr Stanislaw R. Burzynski is a convicted fraud. Who also claims to hold a PhD, although my colleagues and myself have been unable to substantiate the existence of this qualification.

In fact it seems much more likely that Dr Burzynski’s PhD has been made up as a marketing tool. As Saul Green has discovered.

Burzynski’s claim to a Ph.D. is questionable. When I investigated, I found:

• An official from the Ministry of Health in Warsaw informed me that when Burzynski was in school, medical schools did not give a Ph.D. [1].
• Faculty members from at the Medical Academy at Lubin informed me that Burzynski received his D.Msc. in 1968 after completing a one-year laboratory project and passing an exam [2] and that he had done no independent research while in medical school [3].

In 1973, when Burzinski applied for a federal grant to study “antineoplaston peptides from urine,” he identified himself as “Stanislaw Burzynski, M.D, D.Msc.” [4]

–Saul Green, Quackwatch

While a lot of people would ordinarily see through the lies and misinformation. Cancer patients and their families often find themselves in a desperate situation where they will do anything to save themselves or a loved one. It is certainly no coincidence that cancer patients are a favourite target of fraudsters.

Now the Burzynski marketing team has managed to convince a family in Ireland that he can cure their two year old daughter, for a price of course. They have been quoted between:  €30,000 and €100,000 Euros to attend the Burzynski Clinic, although I expect the costs will probably rise. [source]

Even if the family do raise enough money to write a paycheque to Burzynski, they aren’t actually being charged for treatment at all. Instead they are paying for their daughter to take part in a Clinical Trial for a treatment that’s never been proven to be efficacious.

Of course nobody can blame the parents for doing what they genuinely believe will help their daughter, but I can certainly question the ethics and morals of people like Dr Stanislaw R. Burzynski who jump at opportunities like this to make cash. The worst part about health scams isn’t the money that is stolen; but the opportunity that is lost when people give-up proven conventional healthcare for a false hope that’s been sold to them by a charlatan.

Further Reading

Hope or false hope?

Burzynski Research Institute

Burzynski: When is a PhD not a PhD?

Stanislaw Burzynski and “Antineoplastons”

Burzynski: Morally reprehensible

The Burzynski Clinic is using libel laws to silence critics of its cancer treatment

Disrespectful and dubious Burzynski marketing

It appears the Burzynski Clinic has dropped Marc Stephens as their hired goon because he evidently sucked at playing lawyer. Now they are hiring a “Law Firm” called Dozier Internet Law although considering they had their marketing person misrepresent themselves as a lawyer it’s hard to tell just how legitimate Dozier Internet Law really is.

This is what they write on their blog:

“Attack bloggers” need to be reined in. We are having pretty good success dealing with these types without having to file lawsuits all the time, but when it comes to push, we usually will pull the trigger and sue the “attack blogger”. It’s not free speech to create outrageous lies and propagate them all over the web. So, if you get a communication from us, be it a letter, a copy of a lawsuit, or a telephone call, consider the consequences that are about to ensue.

…

So, when you get a communication from us, understand the consequences. These lawsuits will show up on the front page of Google results under your name. SEO is not the sole province of bloggers, by the way. While your lawyers, particularly those involved with the public interest groups, use your case to gain attention and raise contributions, your reputation is being ruined forever. Your reputation as an employee, your reputation as a college applicant, your reputation as a job applicant, your reputation as a private person, your reputation as a husband, and your reputation as a father or mother. Maybe you won’t be confronted with it, but the impact will likely be profound, from prospective employers passing your resume by to parents avoiding you at school functions. It will happen. –Dozier Internet Law

I think there could be more to this threat than just legal proceeding. Rhys Morgan who was recently threatened by the Burzynski Clinic had google street view photos of his house emailed to him, this was intended not as a legal threat but as a general threat of “We know where you live”. Legitimate Lawyers don’t care where you live, but hired thugs who wish to operate outside of the law do.

Now Burzynski has teamed up with Dozier Internet Law who are threatening to ruin their victims reputation as Employees, College Applicant, Job Applicant, Private Person, Spouse, Father or Mother. I have to ask ‘How does being sued for libel ruin a college application?’ (being sued isn’t a crime) unless of course you have people like Burzynski who threaten to call your school as they did to Rhys Morgan, or threaten to interfere with your family as they suggested to Andy Lewis.

Perhaps I’m reading to far into this but if the Burzynski Clinic is willing to threaten a 17 year old blogger (Rhys Morgan) outside of the legal process by sending him photos of his house and threatening to call his school then I don’t think it is to far fetched to envision these crooks harassing employers, family members and other people connected to their critics.

Threats from The Burzynski Clinic – Rhys Morgan

The Burzynski Clinic Threatens My Family – Andy Lewis

Press Release November 2011 – Burzynski Clinic