Alternative Cancer Treatments

Nothing Left to Lose

When conventional medicine failed them, four cancer patients turned to alternative healing methods. They're all still alive

Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

When medical science had nothing left to offer (or, in 16-year-old Billy Best's case, when conventional therapy sickened him), each of these four people turned in desperation to alternatives that oncologists consider, at best, unproven.


David Yoffie and Bill Mears went to New York City physician Nicholas Gonzalez, MD, whose controversial nutritional regimen (100+ supplements, regular coffee enemas) and rejection of conventional cancer treatment have made him a lightning rod for criticism.


Little Katie Hartley and Best, who were children when they developed cancer, took (among other things) a substance called 714X, an injected or inhaled combination of camphor, nitrogen, and mineral salts. This treatment was developed by a French scientist who was once arrested for negligent homicide and practicing medicine without a license, though he was later cleared of those charges. They also took an herbal tea that purports to fight cancer. All four made dramatic changes in their diets as well, with three of them eating only organic produce and forsaking all meat.


But what exactly is keeping these people alive? Is it the unconventional remedies they turned to in desperation? Is it a healthy diet? Is it some combination of the two? Or is it something else entirely?


Their doctors are mystified. Though contacted for this story, only one would comment, and then only anonymously. When asked if his patient, who had not been expected to live, was doing better than expected, the physician replied with a terse "To say the least."

David Yoffie's Deadly Cancer

"My doctor told me I was going to die," says David Yoffie, 47, a real estate entrepreneur from St. Louis.In January 2001, Yoffie had routine surgery to treat his chronic acid reflux. At the beginning of the procedure, his doctor made an awful discovery. "A biopsy of suspicious lesions on my liver showed that I had advanced pancreatic cancer," he recalls. Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest of all cancers; most of the 29,000 people diagnosed with it annually in the US will die within a year.


Yoffie underwent four rounds of chemotherapy. The first two rounds shrank the tumor; the second two left it unscathed. Despite the decrease in the tumor's size, he was told he had approximately a year to live.


Yoffie became an instant pancreatic cancer expert. Internet research turned up one name time and time again: Dr. Gonzalez. "But when I asked my oncologist about Dr. Gonzalez and told him that he'd successfully treated people with pancreatic cancer, he wasn't supportive," says Yoffie.


Yoffie went on the challenging Gonzalez program in June 2001. "It was quite an adjustment," he admits. He now eats a largely organic vegetarian diet, takes some 120 pills a day, and follows Dr. Gonzalez's detox procedures, including the twice-daily coffee enemas.


CAT scans and blood tests currently show no evidence of the pancreatic tumor, says Yoffie. "I live a normal life, and I have enough energy to keep up with my kids. If I hadn't seen Dr. Gonzalez, I'd probably be dead by now. Instead, I have every expectation of living a long, long time."

Published November 2011, Prevention
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