[ExI] Burzynski the Movie The Great Cancer Hoax

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

This is a good analysis, Jeff. While the theorizing behind
antineoplastons seems to be a just-so story, and Burzynski appears to
have stumbled on these compounds (phenylacetic acid, etc.) rather
randomly, there is most likely some anti-cancer efficacy, as shown by
xenograft studies (e.g. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17695534
and others) and multiple reports of clinical response in humans. But,
drugs that are efficacious in xenografts are a dime a dozen, and he
riled up some bureaucrats who decided to go after him, making him
suspect in the eyes of pharma (who tend to be scared stiff of the FDA,
since their survival depends on good relationships with this agency),
so he couldn't avail himself of the resources that normally are
available to inventors of novel therapies through e.g. licensing
deals. Also, he may have hyped up the effectiveness of his drugs
(which in independent studies appears to be modest,
http://www.journalarchive.jst.go.jp/jnlpdf.php?cdjournal=kurumemedj1954&cdvol=42&noissue=4&startpage=241&lang=en&from=jnlabstract),
further putting himself on the margin. Normally, if you have a drug
with even marginal efficacy in cancer, you can obtain substantial
resources to develop it, but not if you are in the crosshairs of the
state.

The persecution of inventors is a really bad idea.

Rafal