Hoxsey Therapy

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The Hoxsey Therapy or Hoxsey Method is a alternative medical treatment promoted as a cure for cancer. The sale or marketing of the Hoxsey Method was banned in the United States as a form of quackery by the Food and Drug Administration in 1960. Currently, the Hoxsey Method is primarily marketed and practiced by the Bio-Medical Center in Tijuana, Mexico. The American Cancer Society has stated that "...There is no evidence that the Hoxsey herbal treatment has any value in the treatment of cancer in humans."[1]

Contents

[edit] History

Food and Drug Administration warning regarding use of the Hoxsey method, released April 1956
Food and Drug Administration warning regarding use of the Hoxsey method, released April 1956

The Hoxsey Therapy, a mixture of herbs, was first marketed as a purported cure for cancer in the 1920's by Harry Hoxsey, a former coal miner and insurance salesman,[2] and Norman Baker, a radio personality. Hoxsey himself traced the treatment to his great-grandfather, who observed a horse with a tumor on its leg cure itself by grazing upon wild plants growing in the meadow. John Hoxsey gathered these herbs and mixed them with old home remedies used for cancer.[3][4]

Harry initially opened a clinic in Taylorville, Illinois for the sale and use of his treatment, one of 17 that he would eventually open. Dogged in many states by legal trouble for practicing medicine without a license, Hoxsey frequently shut down and reopened the clinics in new locations. In 1936, Hoxsey opened a clinic in Dallas, Texas which became one of the largest privately owned cancer centers in the world. At one point in the 1950's, Hoxsey's gross annual income reached $1.5 million from the treatment of 8,000 patients.[2] Hoxsey published several books advertising his methods and clinics, and received support from prominent right-wing conservatives and fundamentalist Christians such as Gerald Winrod and H. L. Hunt.[2]

The United States National Cancer Institute and Food and Drug Administration and the American Medical Association began a series of efforts to restrict Hoxsey's clinic operations, viewing them as providing "false hope". Regarding the rationale for this campaign, John Heller, director of the National Cancer Institute, wrote in 1953:

Our efforts in cancer control are directed toward reduction of the intervals between onset and diagnosis of cancer, and between diagnosis and the application of effective treatment. People who fall victims to quacks are diverted from this narrow course for the best clinical management of cancer.[2]

In 1949, Hoxsey sued the Journal of the American Medical Association and its editors for libel and slander after the journal called him a fraud. Hoxsey won the case, but the judge awarded him only $1. In preparation for the trial, the FDA reviewed the cases of 400 patients treated by Hoxsey and found that many of the patients either did not have cancer, or had cancer for which they had already received appropriate medical treatment elsewhere but were afraid of recurrence. No cases of verifiable cures were found.[5]

The United States government banned the sale of the Hoxsey herbal treatment in 1960.[5] Hoxsey was also forced to close all of his U.S. clinics. In 1963, Mildred Nelson, a nurse who had worked closely with Hoxsey, established the Bio Medical Clinic in Tijuana, Mexico with Hoxsey's approval. Just before Nelson's death in 1999, the clinic was taken over by her sister, Liz Jonas.[6]

In 1967, Hoxsey developed prostate cancer, and his own treatment failed to cure it. Because he failed to respond to his eponymous therapy, Hoxsey underwent surgery and standard medical treatment.[7] He died seven years later, in 1974.

[edit] Treatment

Hoxsey herbal treatment includes a paste of antimony, zinc and bloodroot, arsenic, sulfur, and talc as external treatments, and a liquid mixture of licorice, red clover, burdock root, Stillingia root, barberry, Cascara, prickly ash bark, buckthorn bark, and potassium iodide for internal consumption.[8]

In addition to the herbs, the Hoxsey treatment now also includes antiseptic douches and washes, laxative tablets, and nutritional supplements. A mixture of procaine hydrochloride and vitamins, along with liver and cactus, is prescribed. During treatment, patients are asked to avoid consumption of tomatoes, vinegar, pork, alcohol, salt, sugar, and white flour products.[3]

In 2005, the cost of initial evaluation and treatment with Hoxsey Therapy at the Bio-Medical Center in Tijuana, Mexico was reported to be between $3,900 and $5,100, though this price did not include the recommended purchase of an unspecified number of dietary supplements and 3 years of return visits.[6]

[edit] Side-effects

  • The topical paste is highly caustic, and can burn or scar the skin.
  • The oral treatment can cause:

[edit] Effectiveness

No peer-reviewed medical or scientific research has been published which would allow any conclusions about the effectiveness of the Hoxsey Therapy.[9] The Bio-Medical Center in Tijuana, Mexico claims a success rate of 50–70%, though these figures have not been independently evaluated and the parameters of "treatment success" are undefined.[6] Several books on herbalism have claimed that some of the herbs in the therapy have anti-tumor effects in vitro.[10][11]

The American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute do not advise the use of the Hoxsey Therapy, as neither have found any objective evidence that the treatment provides tangible benefit to people with cancer.[1] Reviews by the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and M. D. Anderson Cancer Center found no evidence that the Hoxsey Therapy is effective as a treatment for cancer.[12][9] A controlled experiment in lab mice did not find any difference in tumor growth between untreated mice and those given the Hoxsey tonic.[13] The Food and Drug Administration investigated 400 people claiming to have been cured by the Hoxsey method, and found that the patients described as cured never in fact had cancer, or had received successful medical treatment elsewhere before being treated with the Hoxsey Therapy. Those who had cancer at the time of the Hoxsey Therapy were uniformly either deceased or alive with active cancer. There were no cases of actual cures among those promoted as such by the Hoxsey clinic.[4][13]

[edit] Notable cases

The treatment gained wide press coverage in 2006 due to a court dispute between the family of Starchild Abraham Cherrix and Social Services of the State of Virginia. Cherrix has requested to undergo Hoxsey Therapy to treat a recurrence of Hodgkin disease. Because at the age of 16 he was still a minor, Social Services considered the parents to be negligent and sought to have Cherrix undergo conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy. On August 16, 2006, Circuit Judge Glen A. Tyler announced that both sides had reached an agreement that the parents did not act in a way that was medically neglectful. In addition, it stipulated that Starchild would be treated by an oncologist of his choice who was both board-certified in radiation therapy as well as interested in alternative methods to treat Hodgkin disease.[14]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Hoxsey Herbal Treatment, from the American Cancer Society. Accessed March 11, 2008.
  2. ^ a b c d Cantor D (2006). "Cancer, quackery and the vernacular meanings of hope in 1950s America". J Hist Med Allied Sci 61 (3): 324–68. doi:10.1093/jhmas/jrj048. PMID 16565262. 
  3. ^ a b Fink JM. Third opinion: an international directory to alternative therapy centers for the treatment and prevention of cancer and other degenerative diseases. 3rd ed. Garden City Park, New York: Avery Publishing Group Inc., 1997:41-42.
  4. ^ a b Janssen WF (1979). "Cancer quackery--the past in the present". Semin. Oncol. 6 (4): 526–36. PMID 394334. 
  5. ^ a b Guzley GJ (1992). "Alternative cancer treatments: impact of unorthodox therapy on the patient with cancer". South. Med. J. 85 (5): 519–23. PMID 1585205. 
  6. ^ a b c Moss RW (2005). "Patient perspectives: Tijuana cancer clinics in the post-NAFTA era". Integr Cancer Ther 4 (1): 65–86. doi:10.1177/1534735404273918. PMID 15695477. 
  7. ^ Hafner AW, editor. Reader's guide to alternative health methods. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: American Medical Association, 1993:128-130.
  8. ^ Spencer JW, Jacobs JJ. Complementary/alternative medicine: an evidence based approach. Toronto: Mosby, 1999:142.
  9. ^ a b Herbal / Plant Therapies: Hoxsey, from the Department of Complementary and Integrative Medicine of M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Last updated July 31, 2006; accessed March 11, 2008.
  10. ^ Diamond WJ, et al. An alternative medicine definitive guide to cancer. Tiburon: Future Medicine Publishing, Inc., 1997:829.
  11. ^ Tyler VE, Foster S. Tyler's honest herbal. New York: Haworth Herbal Press, 1999:316,72.
  12. ^ Hoxsey Herbal Therapy, from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Accessed March 11, 2008.
  13. ^ a b "Hoxsey Method/Bio-Medical Center" (1990). CA Cancer J Clin 40 (1): 51–5. PMID 2104568. 
  14. ^ Associated Press. "Teen, court reach agreement over cancer care", MSNBC.com, 2006-9-5. Retrieved on 2008-03-21. 

[edit] External links

[edit] Promotional

[edit] Scientific reviews

[edit] Narratives