Attention Steve Buscemi fans

We watched "Lonesome Jim" with Casey Affleck and Liv Tyler. It resurrected Midwest memories and Sam was somewhat entertained so I give it 4/5. Minus 1 for the happy ending.

Fwd: The Burzynski Clinic – Another Crank Tries to Intimidate a Blogger

 

 

The Burzynski Clinic – Another Crank Tries to Intimidate a Blogger

via NeuroLogica Blog by Steven Novella on 11/28/11

Here we go again. Over the past few years there have been a number of cases in which a crank, quack, or charlatan has attempted to silence legitimate criticism of their claims and behavior by threatening legal action, either shutting down their site through the ISP or suing for libel. I guess they feel that a lone blogger would be easy to intimidate. They are not part of a large media outlet with lawyers on the payroll to defend them. Defending against even a frivolous suit can be ruinous to a lone blogger.

The goal, however, is not to really sue but to threaten the blogger into silence. It is intellectual thuggery, meant to defend a charlatan who cannot defend themselves with science and evidence.

However, it is not accurate to describe bloggers who expose charlatans as "lone" – they are part of an informal web of science and skeptical bloggers who are all trying to expose fraud and pseudoscience. When one of us is threatened we have banded together to create what is knows as the Streisand effect – try to silence one blogger and a hundred voices will rise up, having the exact opposite effect that you intend.

Recently a person calling himself Marc Stephens wrote a very threatening letter to Andy Lewis who wrote a critical post about the cancer clinic of Stanislaw Burzynski called The False Hope of the Burzynki Clinic. Stephens tried to make the letter sound legal and official, even though he does not appear to be a lawyer. The letter says, in part:

Please be advised that my clients consider the content of your posting to be legally actionable under numerous legal causes of action, including but not limited to: defamation Libel, defamation per se, and tortious interference with business contracts and business relationships. The information you assert in your article is factually incorrect, and posted with either actual knowledge, or reckless disregard for its falsity.

In other words – the blog post is libel and we will sue if you don't take it down immediately. Lewis essentially responded the way General Anthony Clement McAuliff responded when asked to surrender by the Germans in World War II – "Nuts." The post is still up, and now there are dozens of other blog posts up also criticizing the Burzynski clinic and their attempt at silencing criticism.

Legitimate medical clinics use validated and accepted treatment methods. It is therefore always a huge red flag when a clinic offers a "unique" treatment. If the treatment works, why isn't everyone using it? If it is experimental, then they should be following proper experimental protocol, and the treatment should be entirely free.

Dubious quack clinics, however, make clinical claims for treatments that are not based upon rigorous published double-blind placebo controlled trials that demonstrate safety and efficacy. They often just invent their treatments out of whole cloth, and make implausible hand-waving explanations for how and why they work. They typically offer anecdotal evidence only to substantiate their claims. Sometimes they may try to justify their treatments by cherry picking some basic science studies that superficially may seem to support some aspect of their claims, but they extrapolate and speculate wildly from this preliminary evidence. Some even try to claim that they have studied their treatments, but at best they offer uncontrolled case series, which are of little more value than anecdotes.

Such clinics are allowed to practice because of lax or ineffective regulations. Sometimes they hide in low-regulation zones, such as across the border in Mexico. The Burzynki clinic, however, has been able to continue to practice their dubious medicine in Texas. Often such clinics do run afoul of the law, but this is often just a nuisance; the cost of doing business. The Burzynski clinic was put on trial for cancer fraud, but the result was a hung jury.

Lewis tells this story, as well as the fact that the state of Texas is putting Burzynski on trial to take away his medical license. In response those patients who believe in him are engaged in a letter writing campaign to governor Rick Perry. This is also a common ploy. Quack cancer clinics often have those patients who believe fervently in them. If you treat enough people, some will survive and credit the guru for their survival (even though they may have also received standard therapy). Of course, those who die are not heard from. Heartfelt testimony from true-believing patients is the shield that charlatans use to defend themselves from legitimate regulatory action.

What about the treatment itself? Burzynski claims that he has discovered "antineoplastons," which can be extracted from a patient's own urine. These molecules then target cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone. There is, however, no credible science behind these claims. Burzynski has published studies of his therapy, but they are small uncontrolled case series. He has been promoting his therapy for more than three decades – why is he still doing preliminary research (the last of which was published in 2006)?

Well, that is how he skirts regulation. He offers his antineoplaston therapy as an experimental protocol. However, he still charges huge sums of money for the privilege of being a subject in his "research." Lewis tells the story of young Billie Bainbridge, who has brain cancer, and whose family is trying to raise £200,000 to send Billie to the Burzynski clinic for "experimental" treatment. I honestly don't know how he gets away with such flagrantly unethical behavior.

Burzynski's results have not been replicated by other researchers, and the cancer research community does not seem interested in his work. This is not because of any conspiracy – they just recognize crap when they see it. It is also extremely unusual (for legitimate research) that three decades on he is still fooling around with preliminary studies. It's almost as if he is just going through the motions of research so that he can continue to charge large amounts of money to desperate patients so that they can get his "experimental" treatment.

Burzynski's claims are not credible. His behavior is very atypical, and in my opinion is unethical, with all the red flags for cancer quackery. Potential patients and their families should be aware of these facts and be very suspicious of the Burzynski clinic. Meanwhile we will wait to see how the state of Texas responds to this controversy.

As for the threats against Quackometer – well, Burzynski is about to learn that the science blogosphere is a many-headed hydra, and he has just been bitten.

_______________

Some interesting follow up from Orac.

Also, Burzynski likes to tout that his research is FDA approved. But – here is a 2009 warning letter from the FDA citing serious deficiencies in the IRB approval of Burzynski's research.

 

 

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Thanksstuffing

The older minion is spending the weekend an hour and a half away this year. I could only wish he was asked to lead the girlfriends' family in grace. We had a 20lb turkey between the three of us. Luckily we have friends. Care packages were passed out after enjoying drinks by the fire.
The highlight of the evening?
The first friends we've met out here who have brought themselves to understand and even appear to enjoy Euchre.

Slagathor

Singin' in the rain

The EMR adventure continues.

We have been using Practice Fusion for a few weeks now and I am generally pleased with it. It is simple to produce a chart note or write a referral. It produces nice looking summaries for the patient or other docs. I am awaiting better connectivity with pharmacies and labs and I would like an automatic reminder if I forget to sign off on a chart or did not send a superbill. So far though this has been fairly painless transition for myself and my staff.
I would like the company to reward my MA with the $100 gift card they offer for referrals as she was singing its praises when I was grumbling about the previous one.
Just saying. : ]   

Dreams

Dreams shared from xkcd HD

In Connor's second thesis it is stated 'There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.' Does the routine destroy our creativity or do we lose creativity and fall into the routine? Anyway, who's up for a road trip!

This is a sad comment on our "modern" world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/opinion/kristof-the-face-of-modern-slavery.html

Lazy Sunday

(this is my 3rd attempt at posting today as the damn Blogpress app kept crashing on me so now I'm stuck with Google's official app.)

Enter the matrix I will.

I've discovered a childhood(age 4) favorite on Netflix.

H.R. Pufnstuf



I predict a non-productive day until I begin call at 9 tonight.

Slagathor

Get over me

Sent to you via Google Reader

You'll Want to Enlarge This Image

The text reads:

Dear Evangelical Christians:

God here.

First, I do not exist. The concept of a 13,700,000,000 year old being, capable of creating the entire universe and its billions of galaxies, monitoring simultaneously the thoughts and actions of the 7 billion human beings on this planet is ludicrous. Grow a brain.

Second, if I did, I would have left you a book a little more consistent, timeless and independently verifiable than the collection of Iron Age Middle Eastern mythology you call the Bible. Hell, I bet you cannot tell me one thing about any of its authors, their credibility or their possible ulterior motives, yet you cite them for the most extraordinary of claims.

Thirdly, when I sent my "son" (whatever that means, given that I am god and do not mate) to Earth, he would have visited the Chinese, Japanese, Europeans, Russians, sub-Saharan Africans, Australian Aboriginals, Mongolians, Polynesians, Micronesians, Indonesians and native Americans, not just a few Jews. He would also have exhibited a knowledge of something outside of the Iron Age Middle East.

Fourthly, I would not spend my time hiding, refusing to give any tangible evidence of my existence, and then punish those who are smart enough to draw the natural conclusion that I do not exist by burning them forever. That would make no sense to me, given that I am the one who withheld evidence of my existence in the first place.

Fifth, I would not care who you do or how you "do it." I really wouldn't. This would be of no interest to me, given that I can create universes. Oh, the egos.

Sixth, I would have smited all evangelicals and fundamentalists long before this. You people drive me nuts. You are so small minded and yet you speak with such false authority. Many of you still believe in the talking snake nonsense from Genesis. I would kill all of you for that alone and burn you for an afternoon (burning forever is way too barbaric for me to even contemplate).

Seventh, the whole idea of members of one species on one planet surviving their own physical deaths to "be with me" is utter, mind-numbing nonsense. Grow up. You will die. Get over it. I did. Hell, at least you had a life. I never even existed in the first place.

Eighth, I do not read your minds, or "hear your prayers" as you euphemistically call it. There are 7 billion of you. Even if only 10% prayed once a day, that is 700,000,000 prayers. This works out at 8,000 prayers a second — every second of every day. Meanwhile I have to process the 100,000 of you who die every day b...

B Herr

Thoughts on the Penn State student riot.

 

 

Sports Media Asks Molestation Victims What This Means For Joe Paterno's Legacy

via The Onion on 11/10/11

STATE COLLEGE, PA—After former Penn State defensive coach Jerry Sandusky was charged Saturday with multiple counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, corruption of minors, indecent assault, and unlawful contact with minors, the national spor...

 

 

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Women Struggling to Drink Water | The Hairpin

http://thehairpin.com/2011/11/women-struggling-to-drink-water

B Herr

Good manners and social etiquette are important skills.

"It's the House's rules and the House never loses."

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On working with predators in finance

I work with clients in the banking and investment industry and see both the good and the bad. It isn't a "necessary evil"; it just is. People have dreams of having big money, enough to retire when the time comes, or maybe younger if the right set of circumstances smile upon them. Coming from a museum background into this arena was truly enlightening.

I deal with client issues. When something goes amiss, it is my job to fix it, or at least point them in the right direction. It is equal parts frustration and reward. Nothing makes me feel as good as turning a client around and helping to save a relationship.

This hasn't always been the case. In my previous incarnation, I worked help desk, which frequently meant dealing with traders. This was my first exposure to this environment, and in all of my years of work, I never ran into a nastier lot.

Not all of them are like this, but all too many are.

They are predatory; if you get between them and what they do, they will run you down. For them, the necessary steps to handle the problem aren't enough, and anyone beneath them is unworthy. I was told once that the reason I had the job I had was because I wasn't smart enough to make the big bucks, then called a "condescending fuck" when I tried to answer the question while holding back the anger. This was over a recorded line. That was back when the market began its convulsions, though I confirmed that the same person brought one of our supervisors to tears once long before.

We just tried to stay out of their way, even if we couldn't.

That people like him were successful could be surmised by the arrogance; I guess there is something to this whole sociopath thing.

When I went to client operations, things were much different. I was fortunate enough to find that many of my supervisors were sympathetic to the clients, even the ones who could be frequently impossible. That attitude, though, does not exist throughout the entire company. I think that's where the problem arises; clients are judged by value, their "worth", though of course our advertising says otherwise. Clients are frequently passed along, too often to their surprise, and frequently to mine. I've been a client, and am aware that it sucks to be treated like that. Yet it happens anyway, and I always keep that in mind; I won't transfer a client unless I really have to.

Call it co-dependency in the work place, with people I will never meet.

Once you navigate beyond the group that I work in, things really deteriorate. You start moving up in pay gr...

B Herr