The antineoplastons in effect "reprogramme" cancer cells by carrying "good" information to abnormal cells which instructs these cells to develop normally. For most patients, there are no negative side effects; in fact, the treatment sometimes produces benefits, such as increased white and red blood cell counts and decreases in blood cholesterol.

In a paper delivered at the 1986 International Cancer Congress, the world's most prestigious forum on cancer research, Dr Burzynski reported five year follow up results in a clinical trial of his methods with advanced cancer. Forty seven per cent of the patients experienced complete remissions, 60 per cent had objective remissions, 20 per cent survived over five years without cancer. Burzynski has published his results extensively in the peer reviewed medical literature. Confirmatory studies at major US medical centres are part of a large and growing body of evidence that antineoplastons are effective in treating human cancer patients.

The ACS put Burzynski's antineoplaston therapy on their unproven methods lists in 1983, where it remains. Three months later, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered Burzynski and his Houston Institute to stop all further development and use of antineoplastons. Although Burzynski applied for drug approval, FDA dragged its feet for six years, after which agents raided his institute, looking for vague "violations" and seized all of his scientific, medical and personal records. (The raid occurred on the same day that the Burton clinic was shut down in the Bahamas). Burzynski sued the FDA for the the return of his records, but the agency continues to hold them.

Iscador. This extract of the European mistletoe has played a central role at the Lukas Klinic in Arlesheim, Switzerland in the treatment of thousands of patients, many in the terminal or inoperable category. Iscador appears to destroy cancer cells, while simultaneously providing essential nutrients and stimulating the body's immune mechanisms by enhancing natural killer cell activity. It is free from side effects. A growing international medical literature supports its use.

Nevertheless, the ACS has placed the Iscador mistletoe extract on its black list. ACS's condemnation of Iscador, according to People Against Cancer's Robert Houston, was based on "an evaluation of the literature by Dr Daniel Martin, a surgeon who has been an outspoken opponent of unorthodox therapies. . .and by Dr Emil Freireich, a pioneer of cytotoxic chemotherapy who was on record for his opposition to unorthodox approaches."

Coley's Toxins. Dr William Coley, a prominent turn of the century New York surgeon, developed a vaccine of mixed bacterial toxins to destroy malignant tumours. After treating 312 inoperable cancer patients with the vaccine, he reported that 124 were brought into complete remission and virtual cure. His daughter, Helen Coley Nauts, executive director of the Cancer Research Institute, documented 894 cases treated with her father's vaccine. In a 1976 summary as well as 17 monographs, she reported five year survival rates of 65 per cent in inoperable breast cancer, 84 per cent in giant cell bone tumours, 67 per cent in Hodgkin's disease, and similar results in many other types of cancer.

A controlled clinical trial at NYU Medical Center in 1962 concluded that the Coley therapy "has definite oncolytic [cancer destroying] properties and is useful in the treatment of certain types of malignant disease."