CANCER-CURE QUACKERY PREYS ON THE DESPERATE
Truth is there is no conspiracy to keep effective treatments from the public
Magic is the science of fooling people for purposes of entertainment, and magicians, be they professionals or amateurs like myself, take a great interest in the various methods that can be used to bamboozle people.
Magicians, though, are honest charlatans, and tend to get quite upset with dishonest charlatans who dupe people for purposes other than amusement.
The most troubling forms of deception are the ones that deal with matters of health, particularly when it comes to preying on people’s desperation. Cancer is a dreaded disease and there are plenty of charlatans ready to take advantage of its victims. Over the years, I have often tried to alert the public to the various ruses with which these unsavoury characters ply their trade. But, as is often the case, personal involvement takes investigation to a whole other level.
When my wife was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a terrible type of brain tumour, I did what most people do. I frantically searched the scientific literature for options and quickly discovered that there was little room for optimism. Inevitably, Googling brings up a host of “miracle cures,” ranging from herbal remedies and electronic gizmos to coffee enemas. “Cutting edge,” “breathtaking,” “more powerful than any drug Western Medicine can offer” and “bombshell report” are phrases often encountered. There are stories of “stunned doctors who watched tumours disappear in just two weeks,” and accounts of patients who failed to improve with “dangerous chemo and agonizing surgery,” but experienced a miraculous recovery after opting for a “little-known natural serum in a tiny vial that has the power to crush the billion-dollar chemo and radiation industry.” To find out what it is, you are urged to watch a video, and to do so quickly, “before the government, conspiring with Big Pharma, will force its removal.” But after you’ve invested close to an hour, you learn that you have to purchase a book or some newsletter to have the secret revealed.
One report describes a man whose “body remained riddled with tumours after eight brutal months of chemotherapy and had already bought a grave before every single tumour in his body was obliterated.” It costs to find out how. Then there are “maverick” physicians who claim to answer to the Hippocratic Oath, not drug companies, and “blow the lid off ” Big Pharma’s attempts to suppress a treatment “proven to be more effective than 19 of their best selling drugs — but without side effects.” There are numerous such websites featuring various “censored” cures, all claiming to have evidence that is being blocked from publication by drug companies trying to protect their turf. Right.
I received numerous emails from well-meaning people about treatments to explore, ranging from hemp oil and alkaline water to the “Amazing Amezcua Biodisc” that promises to cleanse Chakras. One, “Light Induced Enhanced Selective Hyperthermia,” seemed interesting enough to look into. What I found was not pretty.
Light Induced Enhanced Selective Hyperthermia was actually a scheme cooked up by Antonella Carpenter, an Oklahoma septuagenarian “alternative practitioner” who is not a physician, but has some training in physics. She claimed to cure cancer by injecting a tumour with a saline solution of food colouring and walnut hull extract followed by heating the area with a laser. The treatment, she maintained, was 100 per cent effective, with no side effects. Of course, any claim of 100 per cent efficacy is a hallmark of quackery, since no drug of any kind works in such a foolproof fashion. Even worse, Carpenter urged patients to stay away from oncologists and sometimes told them their cancer had been “killed,” which was not the case.
As often happens, quacks unearth some legitimate process and then twist it out of proportion to hatch a money-making scheme. In this case, the legitimate process is “photodynamic therapy.” In general, the treatment of cancer involves some process by which cancer cells are destroyed while normal cells suffer less damage. Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to avoid collateral damage completely and cancer treatment via radiation or drugs is always burdened with side effects. In photodynamic therapy, the idea is to introduce a photosensitizer, a chemical that when activated by light interacts with oxygen to convert it into a very reactive form known as “singlet oxygen” that can destroy cells. The photosensitizer can be introduced intravenously followed by treating the tumour with long wavelength light via an optical fibre. Alternately, the photosensitizer can be injected directly into a tumour and then the area exposed to light. In either case, singlet oxygen is produced only within the tumour, minimizing damage to normal tissue. The process is applicable to certain types of tumours and is certainly not a cure-all for cancer.
It is this therapy that has been mangled by Antonella Carpenter, who according to investigators cheated cancer patients out of their money and gave them false hope. In spite of any evidence of her treatment having efficacy, supporters have sprung to her side, claiming that her conviction on 29 counts of fraud was carried out by a kangaroo court influenced by “the greedy and vindictive genocidal maggots who control the Cancer Industry and have the FDA and courts in their back pocket.” They go on to say that “the medical mafia is hard at work twisting the truth and vilifying Dr. Carpenter and any other non-Allopathic practitioners of natural or alternative treatments as quacks.” There’s more. “Dr. Carpenter was vindictively targeted ... for successfully curing dozens of cancer patients.” No. She was targeted for subjecting cancer patients to a treatment that did not work and was claiming she had cured them. That is evil.
The truth is that there is no conspiracy to keep effective cancer treatments from the public. Such allegations are an insult to the thousands of researchers and physicians dedicated to solving the problem of this complex disease. As I well know, there is no real magic, only clever tricks to create the illusion that there is.
As often happens, quacks unearth some legitimate process and then twist it out of proportion to hatch a money-making scheme.
joe.schwarcz@mcgill.ca Joe Schwarcz is director of McGill University’s Office for Science & Society (mcgill.ca/oss). He hosts The Dr. Joe Show on CJAD Radio 800 AM every Sunday from 3 to 4 p.m.