Despite such findings, the AMA loudly denounced "Coley's fluids," and the ACS put the vaccine on its Unproven Methods blacklist, labelling it a "quack remedy." Coley's treatment was quietly removed from the ACS lists in 1975 through the influence of Dr Lloyd Old, vice president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre, whose research team was pursuing directions similar to Coley's suppressed method.
Hoxsey. Harry Hoxsey, an ex-coalminer, used a herbal cancer remedy reportedly handed down through his family since 1840, when his great grandfather devised the formula after watching a cancerous horse cure itself by grazing on medicinal herbs. The basic formula, taken internally or externally, uses nine herbs, including licorice, red clover, cascara, burdock root, and stillingia root. A dietary regime, vitamins and immune stimulation are part of the Hoxsey therapy as practised today.
By 1955, Hoxsey's Dallas clinic, with over 12,000 patients, was the world's largest privately owned cancer treatment facility. Hoxsey was frequently arrested for practising without a license. In 1960 his clinics were banned in the US. He died in 1974. Today his former chief nurse continues the therapy at the Bio-Medical Center in Tijuana, Mexico.
The AMA labelled Hoxsey a dangerous quack, but refused to investigate the Hoxsey medicines or to evaluate their efficacy. Yet two federal courts upheld the "therapeutic value" of Hoxsey's internal tonic, and a 1953 federal report to Congress confirmed Hoxsey's charges of a "conspiracy" by the AMA, NCI, and FDA to "suppress" an impartial assessment of his methods. The AMA later admitted that Hoxsey's external medication had merit.
Medical historian Patricia Ward recently found that six of the nine Hoxsey herbs demonstrated anti tumour or immune enhancing activity.
Other Alternative Therapies
Livingston. Dr Virginia Livingston, who died recently, a graduate of New York University School of Medicine, discovered a microbe which she maintained is the cause of cancer. Her theory is that progenitor cryptocides bacteria, present in all people from the time of conception, run rampant when immunity is weakened by such factors as stress, poor diet, old age, or surgery. If proliferating, PC bacteria produce the hormone HCG (human choriogonadotrophin) which, she believed, promotes tumour growth. Scientists have long known of the presence of high levels of HCG in cancer cells and in the blood of cancer patients.
Livingston's treatment at her San Diego clinic included a vaccine (Made from PC in the individual patient), antibiotics, immune stimulants, and a diet emphasizing raw or lightly cooked fresh foods. The diet is rich in abscisic acid, a plant hormone similar to vitamin A. This natural substance is said to neutralize the HCG and thus have an anticancer effect.
Kelley. Dr. William Kelley, an orthodontist by training, treated cancer patients for 20 years. Kelley believed that the pancreas, rather than the immune system, plays a critical role in cancer. Studies in the clinical literature lend some support to the theory that pancreatic enzymes not only serve a digestive function but also circulate in the bloodstream and kill cancer cells.
Kelley's treatment includes large doses of pancreatic enzymes, vitamin and mineral supplements, and fresh, preferably organic foods. One of 10 basic diets, some vegetarian, is prescribed to suit the patient's condition. Detoxification, assisted by coffee enemas, on the principle that caffeine administered rectally opens the bile ducts and releases accumulated toxins.