Unconventional Cancer Doctor Indicted On 75 Counts

A doctor’s unconventional treatment of cancer patients has resulted in a 75-count indictment that alleges he mailed false information to health insurers and tried to sell an unapproved drug across state lines.

The indictment against Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski and his Burzynski Research Institute revolves around his patented “antineoplastons” treatment, which some cancer patients claim has saved their lives.

“Dr. Burzynski’s conduct in violating the law has continued over too long a period of time and affected thousands of persons across the nation,” U.S. Attorney Gaynelle Griffin-Jones said.

The treatment involves synthetic drugs based on the same properties found in a group of substances in the body called antineoplastons. Burzynski claims the substances are produced in people as part of a biochemical defense system that inhibits cancer cell growth.

Since he set up shop in Houston in 1983, Burzynski has been targeted for state and and federal investigations. Three previous federal grand juries did not indict him.

Burzynski has claimed he has the right to produce the treatment and sell it in Texas. A state judge sided with him in February.

He has not sold the treatment outside of Texas and has Food and Drug Administration approval to experiment with the drug in clinical trials, said Burzynski’s attorney, Richard Jaffe.

The doctor also can legally treat patients with an unapproved drug as long as some clinical trials are being done, Jaffe said.

“The FDA does not regulate the practice of medicine,” Jaffe said. “Why are they (FDA) doing this?”

The FDA concedes that Burzynski has the right to use the drug in trials, but claims that he has breached that contract by selling the drug treatment outside of Texas.

Burzynski willfully disobeyed federal court orders in 1983 and 1984 that barred him from introducing or delivering antineoplastons into interstate commerce without FDA approval, Griffin-Jones said.