Still more on Gerson Method

I looked on Google to see if there were any new stories about Bert Scholl, the local Ithaca man who has been diagnosed with rectal cancer and has decided to use the Gerson method rather than conventional surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. I discovered a notice for the fundraiser to raise money for his treatment, which gives more information about his condition.

His tumor has breached the lining of his rectum & is reaching out to his lymph nodes. This is called stage 2, T3 cancer. The conventional recommendation by several doctors is to treat Bert with heavy doses of chemo/radiation along w/ surgery that is either a permanent colostomy, or removal of his rectum & sigmoid colon, with the hope of being able to re-attach the 'pipes' down the road. That's if the tumor can be shrunk enough during the pre-surgery treatments.

We do believe that there are several medical models and ways to treat cancer and other degenerative disease. We are looking into alternative methods of healing as either a compliment to conventional methods, or ideally, as a full course of treatment. The Gerson Method, as described in the documentary, "Dying to Have Known", is the method we feel an alignment with, and wish to pursue healing via this route, before walking the conventional path.

As I had feared, they are hoping to replace conventional treatment with the unproven Gerson Method. I can understand why one might not want to use the conventional methods - they sound horrible (not that the Gerson Method sounds particularly pleasant to me either), but they do afford a better chance of survival, which it seems to me is the most important factor.

I feel passionately about this because my mother and my aunt both died of lung cancer, which is still a very bad diagnosis to receive. After my mother's lung cancer was diagnosed, she lived for about 15 months. My aunt survived much longer because it was caught by chance by a lung x-ray. She had surgery and went for quite a few years without symptoms, until it recurred about eight years after the first diagnosis. She died about two years later. On the second round, she basically only had palliative care. She decided not to go for a full chemotherapy or radiation treatment, only if it would ease her pain or make her more comfortable.

I think that there is a difference between deciding that one does not want the unpleasant effects of chemotherapy or other conventional methods, and thus not employing them with full knowledge of the possible consequences, and deciding (or being convinced) to use a method that will not work under the illusion that it will. The outcome may be the same, but at least in the first case one has not been deceived and exploited, which I think is what is happening in this instance.

More on Gerson Method

A local doctor, Martin A. Ginsburg, has written in to the Ithaca Journal about the Ithaca man who is going to Mexico for cancer treatment:

Having read the May 11 article (Seeking out an alternative: Local man opts for unusual cancer treatment”) about a man seeking alternative methods of treatment for a potentially lethal rectal cancer, I offer the following comments:

I am an internist with subspecialty training in gastroenterology. When I came to Ithaca from Downstate a year ago I was amazed at the massive public interest in alternative medicine.

I agree that every patient should be able to choose his method of treatment — having been fully educated as to the pros and cons of alternative vs. conventional methods. What is lacking here is the dim statistical possibility of cure when going the alternative route as first treatment.

I feel that Bert Scholl should see a competent oncologist locally or at one of the large cancer centers in Buffalo, Rochester or New York City. The bold statistics for both methods should be given to him so he won't go off blindly to Mexico for unproven care that, except for anecdotal vignettes, has been proven most dismal.

It's a relief to read a sensible, informed opinion about this treatment, rather than the credulous account provided by the Ithaca Journal reporter.

$25,000 for what?!

A local Ithaca man who has been recently diagnosed with rectal cancer is trying to raise money for an "alternative" cancer treatment called the "Gerson Method." The article in the Ithaca Journal about this story is not very well written, so it's hard to tell if he's also planning to use conventional cancer treatment methods like chemotherapy or radiation therapy. (I certainly hope he is!) This alternative method requires him to go to the Baha Nutri Care clinic and pay $25,000 for the privilege, so he and his wife have organized a benefit tonight to help him pay his expenses.

So, what is this "Gerson Method" and does it have any legitimacy in the treatment of cancer? According to the article, it is a nutritional method that uses coffee enemas, "which are said to stimulate immune functioning." The passive voice is a wonderful thing - who is saying that they stimulate immune functioning and is there any evidence to support this assertion? Clearly, the reporter responsible for this article did not do any research to find out what this method was and whether it was reputable, but as I found out quickly, it's not too hard to find out that this is a wholly dubious treatment.

From what I can tell from a rather cursory websearch, this method will not cure rectal cancer, and if it is used instead of the usual methods, it will endanger the man's life by postponing effective treatment. A physician blogger known as Orac tells a sad tale about a patient who came to him with orange skin. It turns out he had been diagnosed with rectal cancer, but rather than having surgery, had begun a nutritional treatment that involved coffee enemas and megadoses of carrot juice (hence, the orange skin). His treatment was based on a program designed by Dr. Max Gerson.

Orac describes this treatment as follows:

The basis of this "therapy," developed first by Max Gerson, MD back in the 1940's and 1950's, then continued by William Kelley, DDS in the 1960's, and still practiced today by Nicholas Gonzalez, MD, is a belief that all cancers come from a deficiency of pancreatic enzymes, which supposedly allows cancer cells to grow. By the "concept" behind this, cancer grows and metastasizes because there is lack of cancer-digesting enzymes in the body. The solution is, supposedly, is to get pancreatic enzymes to the place where cancer is growing, in a concentration high enough to stop growth, but not so high as to cause too rapid production of "toxins" from tumor breakdown. Consequently, the treatment consists of "detoxification" with coffee enemas, which supposedly help flush the waste products of tumor cell breakdown out of the body; dietary manipulations; ingestion of pancreatic enzymes; and megadoses of supplements and vitamins, like carrot juice. The original Gerson diet required more than a gallon a day of juices made from fruits, vegetables, and raw calf's liver, but there are many variants.

This treatment does not do anything for rectal cancer, and because the patient had postponed surgery for over a year, by the time he came back to Orac the tumor had increased greatly in size and the operation required to treat it was much more difficult, and his chance of surviving the cancer was much lower. I hope that the Ithaca man does not postpone an appropriate cancer treatment out of the mistaken hope that the Gerson treatment will actually help him.

An exhaustive debunking of the Gerson diet and its coffee enemas can be found at Unconventional Cancer Treatments: Dietary Treatments. This is taken from Unconventional Cancer Treatments, published in September 1990 by the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress, pp. 44-51. A more recent source of information can be found on the website of the American Cancer Society: Gerson Therapy.