FDA Goes After Fake Cancer Treatments

[TZ]

WASHINGTON (June 17) - The Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on teas, supplements, creams and other products that falsely claim to cure, treat or prevent cancer even though they are not agency-approved drugs. All are available for sale on the Internet.

The agency has sent 25 warning letters to companies and individuals marketing these products, FDA officials said Tuesday. Twenty-three of the letters went to domestic companies and two to foreign individuals.

FDA officials said the statements made about these products are dangerous because they could prevent a patient from seeking proper treatment for cancer. They could also harm a cancer patient by interacting with other drugs the patient is taking.

"FDA is very concerned that consumers will purchase these products on the Internet and use them instead of products that have been proven safe and effective," said Michael Levy, director of labeling the agency's new drug division.

http://news.aol.com/health/story/_a/fda-goes-after-fake-cancer-treatments/20080617163109990002

[Orrex]

1. I have a friend who drank green tea, and his prostate cancer disappeared

Of course, he had his prostate removed, and he was on a battery of radiation and chemo therapies for weeks and weeks.

But I'm sure that it was the green tea what done it!

[jeanruss]

2. thank God

Thank God the FDA wants to protect me from things that have no side effects!

[TZ]

3. Yay! First snarky response

To the FDA doing their job...Read it carefully my friend...The FDA is going after things that are potentially LETHAL AND FRAUDULENT.
Amazing how when the FDA does WHAT IT WAS ESTABLISHED TO DO people bitch.
Lets just leave the poor snake oil merchants taking people's money for crap alone....

[jeanruss]

8. incompetent FDA

Yeah the FDA is doing a great job. Their own latest study states that they are not able to protect the public from bad food, bad toys, bad drugs, etc. That boy from Virginia who had to get a COURT ORDER to stop chemo, so that he could use herbs and nutrition to eradicate his cancer, is now cancer-free. Of course that story didn't get any play. How many people are at the FDA wanting to know how he did it? How many doctors are lining up to investigate what they could learn from this boy's success? Poor kid had to go to Mexico to save himself.

[TZ]

9. Its called UNDERSTAFFING

They DON'T have the money or the resources to monitor everybody.
Oh and proof that they boy is cancer free btw? Cancer has been known to go into remission FROM THE CHEMO! DUH!
The herbs probably did nothing..I bet it was the CHEMO which TAKES TIME.
BTW as for your "incomptent FDA"..they have been on site at my work for the past week or so and I can tell you they DO know what they are doing. They just need more people to do it.
Its ignorants like you that HAVE NO SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE that do more damage to this country.
Do you know how many people DIE each year cause they take unregulated unproven crap thinking it will help and it interacts fatally with scientifically proven medication?
Children have out and out DIED from people poisoning them with things like laetrile WHICH IS CYANIDE..because they were told it "cures cancer".
Or the misguided souls who harm or kill their child because some QUACK has convinced them that all they need to do to "cure them" is something like chelation therapy which is EXTREMELY dangerous.
You types with your ignorance are responsible for more harm in this country than any pharmaaceutical company

[jeanruss]

11. research

As the parent of a child who died from osteosarcoma, I am intimately aware of the state of cancer treatment and the duplicity of the medical profession. We lived it for six years. There was a clinical trial of vaccines for my daughter's illness in the early 1970's. It was 98% successful and then it was shelved. They had literally cured her type of cancer and nothing came of it because it was not the economic engine that chemo and radiation are. When my daughter's traditional treatment was failing(after incredible suffering) we did a vaccine treatment not sanctioned by the FDA. It worked beautifully and she lived a high quality life for 4 years. The clinic that serviced us was forced to close after 35 years because it was not permitted to advertise their success. We were unable to get the vaccines that saved her life. Within 6 months she was dead. You really don't know what you are talking about. Our experience really showed us how money rules the medical profession as well as research.

[TZ]

12. proof?

Sounds like bullshit to me. Cancer vaccines are just NOW in clinical trials. and are showing VERY promising effects. In fact as a med researcher I see plenty of alternative treatments to chemo and radiation in the market--in fact, my company is working on some--read about MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES. AND I actually am ON ONE for a leukemia like condition (read about interferon sometime and LEARN)
Cell receptors, cancer immunogenetics...lots of strides..considering how much more we know NOW than in the 70's, I am HIGHLY suspicious of your story.

[jeanruss]

13. sad

I would never lie about something so serious and it is insulting to suggest such a thing. I have spoken to a survivor of the original clinical trial(yes she is still alive) as well as one of the physicians(there were five). I have tried to file a lawsuit to shed light on this travesty, but the lawyers I have contacted so far are intimidated by Big Pharma and their resources, but I will continue. It is breathtaking to think of where we would be today, if this treatment had been allowed to come to light. Vaccines for cancer is NOT a new thing. Ever since the turn of the century it was proven that there was an association between bacteria, viruses and cancer. Now that chemo is largely failing, and peolple are rejecting the American treatment model, companies are forced to look for other revenue streams. The biggest treatment that has been ignored for so long is PREVENTION. Our story can be read at annieappleseedproject.org. I told our story in the hope that things would start to change regarding the cancer treatment monopoly we have suffered under, courtey of the FDA for so long.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jberryhill]

15. but the lawyers I have contacted so far are intimidated by Big Pharma

Lawyers sue pharmaceutical companies all of the time.

http://www.pharmaceutical-lawsuits.com/

[jberryhill]

16. That's very interesting...

...someone had paid for the research and development into a vaccine, and then funded clinical testing, obtained results, and ultimately decided not to recoup their investment by proceeding with the product.

Why was the sponsor of the research conducting the test in the first place?

Does it strike you as at all strange that the vaccine developer, which was no doubt a pharmaceutical company, would spend what it takes to develop and test a vaccine, when they weren't going to sell it anyway?

[jeanruss]

18. wow

All of you must really have a financial stake in the pharmaceutical industry. It is striking to see so many so-called progressives so eager to defend a corrupt government agency. I have hired 3 private investigators and have a good amount of info. What I can say here is that the study was half funded by a private foundation and a university. One of the five physicians was murdered, gunned down in broad daylight in front of the hospital where he worked. It remains unsolved. He was a very prominent doctor and humanitarian who I am sure would never have let the results of this incredible trial be suppressed. The case also involved the the very sick child of a prominent person at the university. I suspect that is why she was permitted to participate in the trial, as she did not fit the criteria. She had exhausted all conventional treatments and was near death. What was achieved in this trial still isn't possible today. Typically as you all must know, they don't allow patients to participate if they don't fit the description of the trial, but they made an exception in her case. I have always thought this whole scenario sounds like a made for tv movie on lifetime, except that it actually happened. I have confidence that we will see justice served. The potential upfront costs are what have stopped the attorneys so far, from taking this case. Hopefully we will find a group with the money and interest to pursue this.

[varkam]

19. What? eom

[TZ]

28. Ah yes..the snark of last resort..we are all stockholders!

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
Face the fact that you are posting BULLSHIT and you've been caught good on it.
Edit: Good progressives are scientifically literate. You are not.

[chicagomd]

10. Please do at least a little research

before you post.

I assume you are talking about Starchild Abraham Cherrix, whose parents refused to let him have a SECOND round of chemotherapy followed by radiation for his lymphoma.

So he used herbs and nutrition to cure his cancer? Really?

You mean he used herbs, nutrition, as well as:

An initial round of chemotherapy.
An undisclosed number of rounds of radiation under the care of different oncologist.

[nodehopper]

24. you conveniently forgot to mention some facts

two things:

1. He got low doses of radiation treatment in addition to the therapy he got in Mexico.

2. After which some of his tumors shrank, but other lymph nodes swelled up. At which point he got MORE low-dose radiation treatment, which is specifically indicated for Hodgkin's.

After THAT most of his tumors were eliminated, except one, for which he is being treated in the US with, again, low-dose radiation treatment.

does his history of radiation therapy interfere with your belief that bad FDA ignores his miraculous recovery through diet?

[AntiVax]

29. RAOFL!!

RAOFL!!

What the FDA is really doing:
"1.) It is providing a means whereby key individuals on its payroll are able to obtain both power and wealth through granting special favours to certain politically influential groups that are subject to its regulations. This activity is similar to the "protection racket" of organised crime: for a price, one can induce FDA administrators to provide "protection" from the FDA itself.
2). As a result of this political favouritism, the FDA has become a primary factor in that formula whereby cartel-orientated companies in the food and drug industry are able to use the police powers of government to harass or destroy their free-market competiton. Eg
3). And thirdly, the FDA occasionally does some genuine publ ic good with whatever energies it has left over after serving the vested political and commercial interest of its first two activities."------- Edward Griffin, World Without Cancer. http://www.realityzone.com/

[varkam]

31. Quite the impressive collection of woo Mr. Griffin's got going, there.

Oh, and you can buy it? I'm so there.

[varkam]

4. Not just no side effects - no effects whatsoever!

:crazy:

[LeftishBrit]

21. Taking ineffective treatments for a serious disease does have side effects...

such as quite possibly early death because people fail to get adequate medical treatment in time.

[DemExpat]

5. The EU did this in the past few years as well.

Products are still sold, but only if labelling of ingredients is proven correct and no claims to cure anything are used on packaging, labels, or advertisements.

I use "woo" products and services, but support this action 100%.

DemEx

[trotsky]

6. "They could also harm a cancer patient by interacting with other drugs the patient is taking."

That's key. And should something like that happen, the prescription drug gets the blame for any injury that results. Thus the skewing of medical statistics by those who seek to promote fear and misunderstanding of evidence-based medicine.

[Warpy]

7. The key is honesty

Anyone using this stuff for the placebo effect (which is all you can expect, really) needs to inform the physician of exactly what is being taken. There are some herbs that do interfere with drugs and doctors and pharmacists will react accordingly.

There are a few docs out there who will tell their patients to stop taking the stuff, but most docs know how powerful the placebo effect can be in people susceptible to it and will accommodate a great deal of "alternative cure" in the overall regimen. The only difference is when the alternative product is downright dangerous. That's when every doc worthy of his license will tell patients to avoid it.

People in this country have been fed anti government bullshit by the corporate media for far too long, to the point they have a knee jerk reaction against any watchdog agency set up to protect them from dangerous products. This is insanity.

[semillama]

17. Mail Order alternative medicine just got easier

http://www.toothpastefordinner.com

[philb]

20. FDA does not have a good record on what treatments are beneficial and which problematic

Since FDA is primarily controlled by the Pharmaceutical Industry, through the advisory panels with Pharmaceutical connections and through money and lobbying connections.

FDA has a record of harassing those who sell or promote many products that are documented by credible peer-reviewed studies to be effective in reducing effects of conditions such as cancer,
while often allowing use of Pharmaceuticals with little evidence of benefit, and often much evidence of harm.

[TZ]

27. Aww look who dropped by! Is your medicine wagon broken?

You mean that the FDA stops people like YOU from harming desperate people with your frankenstein like pseudoscienctific crap!
Thanks DOC! So you know better than ALL the MD's in the world right!
I bet you have a 220 IQ too!:sarcasm:

[xchrom]

22. kick

[HysteryDiagnosis]

23. FDA allows fillings that are 50% mercury in your children's

mouthes... start to feel the heat from recent admissions... counter with an attack on cancer cures. Not too too surprising.

[TZ]

26. Tell me how CYANIDE (laetrile) is a cancer cure, hmm?

You are a fool. You lambast the pharmaceuticals for not being regulated enough yet its okay for people to ingest useless sugar pills, or even POISON without any regulation. Its people like you who are the danger to the american public.

[cosmik debris]

25. It takes all kinds

I read te OP and was interested, so I read the responses. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that there are people in our midst who actually support "products that falsely claim to cure".

Then I realized that these are the same people who support many "products that falsely claim to cure". It is a pattern.

I wonder if the propensity to support false claims is caused by the absence if vaccinations?

:)

[Name removed]

30. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[AntiVax]

32. The Cancer Conspiracy

http://whale.to/a/cancer_c.html

[cosmik debris]

33. You forgot the sarcasm tag.

It looks like this :sarcasm:

You should use it to warn people that you are posting something absolutely absurd and that they should not take it seriously. Otherwise, people might not know that you are joking.

[varkam]

34. No they didn't.

Antivax is a walking sarcasm tag.

[cosmik debris]

35. Laugh and the world laughs with you

Post bogus crap and the world laughs at you.

(apologies to Ella Wheeler Wilcox)