Per the ever informative Orac at Respectful Insolence, the Burzynski Cancer Clinic has backed down—well, sort of. The clinic has apparently fired Marc Stephens and disavowed his specific threats against Andy Lewis, but it has reaffirmed that the original post at issue was inaccurate and that the clinic’s lawyers will be contacting the bloggers involved.
The press release also asserted that there is, in fact, scientific evidence to support the benefit of the therapy they employ. The list of evidence provided consists mostly of unpublished abstracts, case reports, and other sources at fairly high risk for bias. Orac has promised to review these and see if there is any substance to them, and I will keep an eye out for that analysis. So far, it looks like the Streisand Effect has at least partially done its job in forcing the clinic to throw Marc Stephens under the bus for his outrageous behavior, but the threat of litigation is still there so the organization bears watching.
Here is the text of the clinic’s press release as posted on Respectfl Insolence:
The Burzynski Clinic is issuing the following public statement regarding recent internet activity between U.K. bloggers who have provided inaccurate information regarding the Clinic and Marc Stephens.
Marc Stephens was recently hired by the Burzynski Clinic as an independent contractor to provide web optimization services and to attempt to stop the dissemination of false and inaccurate information concerning Dr. Burzynski and the Clinic.
We understand that Marc Stephens sent a google map picture of a blogger’s house to the blogger and made personal comments to bloggers. Dr. Burzynski and the Clinic feel that such actions were not appropriate. Dr. Buzynski and the Burzynski Clinic apologize for these comments. Marc Stephens no longer has a professional relationship with the Burzynski Clinic.
These bloggers will be contacted by attorneys representing the Clinic informing them of the specific factual statements contained in these blogs which the Clinic believes are false and defamatory, including the following
A. Antineoplastons are made from urine. False – Antineoplastons are synthesized from chemicals
B. That Dr. Burzynski falsely claims to have a PhD. – False. In fact, Dr. Burzynski has a Ph.D. from the Medical Academy of Lublin and a copy of an official affadavit will be put up at the Burzynski Clinic website (www.cancermed.com).
C. There are no scientific studies supporting antineoplaston treatment since 2006. False – below is alist of publications and abstracts providing the results of the FDA-approved clinical trials since 2006 which demonstrate the treatment’s efficacy on a wide variety of brain tumors.
U.K. bloggers made factual misstatements about the clinic as a response to a funding campaign relating to a U.K. patient named Laura Hyman who was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, a deadly form of cancer. She commenced treatment at the Clinic in August 2011. We are happy to report that Laura is doing well on antineoplaston treatment and that her tumor is shrinking. Her personal blog about her treatment by the Burzynski Clinic is at www.hopeforlaura.com.
Eleven (11) phase II FDA-approved clinical trials using antineoplastons for various forms of brain tumors have been completed. Based on the positive results the FDA has granted permission to undertake phase III clinical trials. The results fo these trials are detailed in the Burzynski Research Institute’s SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) filings available at (http://finance.yahoo.com/q/sec?s=bzyr.ob)
Contact: Renee Trimble, Director of Public Relations
I don’t think Burzynski has a very good grasp on the fact that the skeptics in question are no dummies. I think he’s going to find that out PDQ.
If ONLY he would simply release/publish actual pertinent data, instead of constantly hiding behind the guise of the FDA’s “experimental” trials. But I guess if there’s never been any controlled studies, wouldn’t that be a moot point?
Thanks for keeping tabs on this, skeptvet, looks like the blog count/streisand effect is growing considerably!
Antineoplastons are made from urine.