Burzynski: The Movie **SKEPTIC ALERT**

Leia - Susie's country provides universal health coverage (lucky woman) so by societal agreement all pay higher taxes so that all are covered  Sounds very humane to me. Perhaps you prefer the system in most of Africa - due to poverty and high rates of drug diversion, many women get virtually no treatment, not even opioids to ease their pain while dying. (Opioids are illegal in many african countries due to drug diversion issues, but available to the rich. I guess to you this is fair - nobody has to be responsible for anyone else. I think its barbaric. I also think its s****y that medical expenses are the number one cause of bankruptcy in the US. As imperfect as univeral care is, I still think it is better than our system.

However I agree with the concept that there a limits to what society can afford, and though I would want treatments to prolong my life as long as QOL is okay, it doesn't make sense to spend $100,000 on someone who is likely to die in a few months anyway.  

I pay my own insurance premiums (but also have a $10,000 deductible) and I pay taxes so that those who cant afford insurance can have coverage....nothing is "free".  I also paid a large out of pocket expense for treatment that works but because the FDA says it's quackery, my insurance company will not pay for it.  The system needs to be revised.  We are a pharmaceutical addicted "sick care" oriented system.  When we start focusing on the cause and stop treating the symptoms and start being responsible for our own health, health care costs will fall....but them what would that do to the economy?      

One of the points of this thread is that Burzynski still uses chemo. Does he advise people not to have surgery? I didn't think so. So instead of cut burn and poison he just recommends cut and poison. I guess that is an improvement.

Yep, Leia, it really does come down to the individual, right?  So the smoke from your treasured cigarettes that you blow in everyone else's faces doesn't matter, right?

Still hard to take anything you say about promoting healthy lifestyles along with your smoking...how many smokes do you have a day anyway?

My wife is a 40 years survivor of breast ca. She underwent radical mastectomy with nodes disection. This was followed by multi-cocktail chemo. Today, she would have undergone lumpectomy, some radiation Tx....as STATISTICS say she wouldn't do better with all the extra-suffering therapy she underwent. Well, think of it this way: if you want to know something about the torque ratios, the physics of your engine to drive shaft transfer of energy, etc, you go to a guy in a snappy clean white coat with a calculator in the pocket: the auto engineer. But if you just want yout tailpipe changed or car tunned up, you go to the gringy guy in dirty overalls, the automechanic.

 It's different with cancer. If you want to know about your cancer cells, their genetic aberations, and any prospective gene manipulation, you go to the all knowing young molecular biology PhD who is in gungy jeans and scruffy looking because as a grad student and post-doc he gets paid crap. But if you want to ust go get  a standard chemo Tx you go to the know-nothing technician who just works blindly by protocol (in most cases), the oncologist in the starched white coat and with a steoscope on his neck that he probably no longer knows how to use. Burzynski was a rare bird for his time: BOTH the guy who does thethoughtful science and the guy who mindlessly does the chemo by protocols. Invariably, he kept up with the explosion in molecular biology and tried to spply it in a medical profession that had barely gotten through biochem, so it regards all blood values as below, above and within range "biomarkers," much as a Pavlovian dog reacts to the conditioned stimulus. See what makes the FDA approve a drug. It is data provided by the manufacturer through paid clinicians. However, since Reagan, NIH/NSA research results can be patteneted by the PhD. He can sell the patent to PHARMA so that he too can afford fancy pants and a clean starched white coat like the MD. But, so that there's no conflict, PhDs now buy blue or pink coats and MDs wear scrub suits under their white coats so there's no confusion. Now both work together, publish a paper and then go dark until they sell the patent to PHARMA for millions. That's the for profit background in which  Burzynski was abused-- as in putting the topic under "complimentary, wholistic..." And, though a feisty fighter, he has not hesitated to seek his millions either. Meanwhile, the the dollar battles for PHARMA romancing go on, people are dying of cancer waiting for the for-profit atmosphere to find a magic cure. Well, there isn't epigenetics is brand new and every step looks like a gold mine-- literally! That's why progress is so much slower than in the "open access" days of pre-Regan corporate cannibalism days. I was a scientist, a physician and a patient, as was my wife. I miss the old days whenA COMMON PURPOSE was enough to see us all collaborate. Sre, ego was a problem, but that is nothing compared to corporate cannibalism. Burzynki seems to have gone through all the phases and is now trying to appear as Mr. PhD for the science and not Mr. MD for the cash. That's a mixed metaphore that won't go over well despite the movie. But as some of us needlessly die because corporate entrepreneurship-- a French term meaning the taker in the middle-- let us recall the days of science and medicine for humanity's sake when MD was a calling as was a PhD. Alas, we'll never know if Burzynski is right because few MDs understand the epigenetic notions of methylation and heterochromatin he refers to and few PhDs have got anything sure enough to get the entrepreneurs at PHARMA to invest in him. Meanwhile, the FDA, which pompously desides only based on the phony data PHARMA sends in on its own drugs (soooo many labs were closed and their directors put in jail for phony results and so many drugs were dumped post marketing that FDA can't act too proud), POLITICALLY chooses whom it sends the FDA after while cancer gets the last laugh and we all vow for our favorite witchcraft. Man-- and woman-- are indeed a Greek Tragedy!

It is an interesting first post! Wish there was a "like" button, digger

Eugnid wrote: "(soooo many labs were closed and their directors put in jail for phony results and so many drugs were dumped post marketing that FDA can't act too proud), "

Soooo many?? How many directors were put in jail? 10? 20?  Can you site them?  

This is what bugs be about this forum - there is way too much creative writing here.  There could be good information exchanged, but so many people just make stuff up, it buries and discredits whatever helpful information that exists here.

The New Me:  Thank you for taking the time to discredit the made-up stuff with concrete, well-supported facts and data. You are performing a huge public service.

This is like a court room.is he or is he not!!!!!!!!.Reading all these stories changes the picture.

We have a sista on here from 2010 that is telling us first hand that she got ripped off.

I believer her!!!!!!!.

Oh, digger, didn't you hear? I quit smoking. 

Although, I still have not hear what your breast cancer diagnosis is.  

Eugnid

Since you answered my last question with another, I will not bother with any more. If you want a true discussion and not obsfucation, break it down for the layperson . Appproved means approved by the FDA and Texas state authorities, not treatments that cause a doctor to be convicted of fraud.

 ETA: Just a random thought- the ignore button is a wonderful thing.

Diagnosis: 2/25/2007, IDC, Stage I, 0/2 nodes, ER+/PR+, HER2

Leia,

How wonderful that you decided to quit smoking!  That's great news!

Not sure why you remain so personally obsessed with knowing my diagnosis, but whatever.

Still happy for those around you that you quit those smokes! 

To add - our public hospital system here is not all that good, so I wouldn't ever use it.

Tenmom is right but I don't believe anyone is angry at those without insurance. They are the ultimate victims here. It is so unfair that someone has to go bankrupt because of their medical care. She says, "We live in a world where treatments are so expensive that you must have health insurance to afford it." I totally agree. The problem is the System. There is so much corruption within a system that allows pharmaceutical companies to have so much influence in our care. Pharmaceuticals do not heal. They are "symptom" care. We allow lobbyists to influence our politicians who make the laws. (see this link to another thread.)

http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/121/topic/780327?page=1#idx_1

We allow them in our universities to have influence on what our young and upcoming doctors learn about health and in their furthering education once they have become doctors. Pharmaceuticals have their place but because we allow the "gifting" and bribery to go on where our doctors are concerned, our medical industry becomes biased to "sick" care, prescribing a pharmaceutical for whatever ails us and sometimes for what doesn't. We don't teach "wellness". There are illnesses where diet alone would cure but our doctors are only taught to treat the symptoms with pharmaceuticals. We need to teach our children how to be well instead of prescribing meds for every ailment. Our children are on more meds now that ever. Vaccines have increased substantially since we were kids. American children are the most vaccinated in the world. It's a travesty. All for the profit of big pharma.