Cancer Doctor Moving East

Dr. Juergen Bertram may have an answer to one of life’s biggest mysteries, cancer. But he won’t know until he leaves Coeur d’Alene.

“I firmly believe if you stay in one place, you just don’t grow,” Bertram says, sounding like Sigmund Freud but looking more like a Kewpie doll. “I want to do nationwide research and I can’t do it here.”

He came from the University of Southern California seven years ago to open the North Idaho Cancer Center. It was his chance to hand-pick patients for preliminary studies on his Prosorba column, a bloodcleansing method he developed.

The column acts as a type of washing machine to remove factors from the blood that shut down the immune system.

With it, Bertram has alleviated the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and an auto-immune disease called ITP. He’s also eradicated brain tumors in at least two patients.

The column is close to earning approval as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. It’s undergoing a second trial now on 15 patients here and in Florida and Texas.

Bertram has sent his study of his column’s effect on brain cancer to the New England Journal of Medicine and is ready to start nationwide testing.

Such testing requires a research center, which North Idaho’s cancer center is not. So this week , the good doctor will leave for the University of Kentucky in Louisville.

He’ll teach, practice and test. If things go well - and Bertram is confident they will - his method will go to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in about two years for approval as a treatment for brain cancer.

“Sometimes I’m amazed,” he says. “When I first gave talks about this in 1983 and 1984, people laughed.”

Fiddling Around

Carolyn Hatch has fiddled her way into the hearts of music lovers nationwide. Her 40 young fiddlers recently impressed the Music Educators National Conference in Washington, D.C., and now have been invited to play in Maui’s schools in May.

Carolyn calls her Sandpoint school the Fiddlers’ Hatchery and teaches kids 4-17. Some play on instruments so small they look like toys.

To get the group to Maui will be costly, but Carolyn isn’t asking for handouts, unless you’re willing. She wants to raise money by playing for your events. You can’t beat fiddle music. Call the Hatchery at 263-5320.

A Roar of Support

Post Falls High School found it pays to volunteer in the community. Band members played the live roles at the Post Falls Lions Club’s haunted house last Halloween. So the Lions Club reciprocated by contributing $2,500 to the band.

The senior class also helped at the haunted house and got $500 from the Lions for its graduation party. I don’t know what the school library did, but the Lions gave it $4,500 for new computers and data bases. Those Lions are quite a bunch of pussy cats.

The Show Must Go On

The Missoula Children’s Theatre is coming soon and will give hordes of kids a chance to strut on stage. It’s a great program, sometimes teaching more than expected.

My daughter was 5 when she nabbed a role as an evil flower with the Missoula group years ago. Every day for a week, she rehearsed at North Idaho College.

Then, on performance day, she erupted with chicken pox.

At the director’s urging, she performed in the matinee. But the pox covered her feet by the evening show and she bagged it. The children’s theater wasn’t pleased, but forgot by the next year.

Ever been embarrassed on stage?

Let us laugh about it, too. Tell Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, ID, 83814; fax to 765-7149; or call 765-7128.