By Lyle Hurd, editor totalhealth
Recently totalhealth magazine published a comprehensive article
written by Parris Kidd, Ph.D. summarizing the Gonzalez - Isaacs
cancer research program. Reader response and requests for additional
information have been significant. The following synopsis will be
helpful in better understanding the therapy and its potential.
In their treatment Drs. Gonzalez and Isaacs use an intensive nutritional
program for the treatment of cancer as well as other degenerative
diseases ranging from multiple sclerosis and lupus to chronic fatigue.
The treatment has three basic components: individualized diet,
individualized supplement programs and detoxification routines such
as the coffee enemas. Their approach, they believe, is unique in
that they don't have just a single "one size fits all" program but
they tailor each protocol for each patient. For example, they prescribe
a variety of diets, depending on the specific make up of each patient.
These diets range from pure vegetarian to "carnivore" diets requiring
red meat - with the fat - two to three times a day. The supplement
protocols are similarly very individualized and over the past 13
years Drs. Gonzalez and Isaacs have designed a line of products
specifically for use in their therapy. These products include precise
combinations, doses and forms for the various vitamins, minerals
and trace elements as well as glandular products and enzymes. Pancreatic
enzymes are the core of their cancer protocols but also are an integral
part of their treatment programs for non-cancer disease as well.
These enzymes and other supplements are available only to their
patients and cannot be purchased in health food or drug stores.
To date they have deliberately avoided commercializing their products
because they believe strongly that commercialization should follow
appropriate clinical testing and mainstreaming of their work.
They have made good progress toward this goal of acceptance. In
1993, Dr. Gonzalez presented a series of case reports at the National
Cancer Institute and as a result of that session the NCI suggested
he proceed with a pilot study of patients suffering inoperable advanced
pancreatic cancer. The trial was funded and conducted under rigorous
academic supervision. They completed this preliminary study in early
1999 and subsequently published the results in the peer-reviewed
journal Nutrition and Cancer last summer. The data showed an effect
that went beyond anything previously reported for this deadly disease
in the medical literature. Of the 11 patients followed in the trial,
eight of 11 suffered stage IV disease. Nine of 11 (81 percent) lived
one year, five of 11 lived two years (45 percent), four lived three
years (36 percent) and two have passed four years. In comparison,
in a recent trial of the newly approved drug gemcitabine, of 126
patients with pancreatic cancer, not a single patient lived longer
than 19 months.
As a result of the pilot study data, the NCI, working with the
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the
NIH, then approved funding in the amount of $1.4 million for a large-scale,
controlled clinical trial of their approach, again with pancreatic
cancer. This study, which is currently up and running at Columbia
University in New York, has full FDA approval for all aspects of
their treatment. This study, the first major NCI-NIH trial of an
alternative cancer therapy, has already created considerable interest.
Should the results of this trial prove as positive as the pilot
study, then their treatment would become an accepted therapy for
pancreatic cancer.
Drs. Gonzalez and Isaacs are also in the process of putting together
an extended monograph that will describe in detail patients with
appropriately diagnosed, poor prognosis or terminal cancer of various
types, who have enjoyed prolonged survival (five to 10 years) and/or
tumor regression on their therapy. This information should encourage
further interest in their work and demonstrate that their treatment
warrants consideration for a variety of cancers.
As their approach generates interest and, hopefully, eventual mainstream
acceptance, they realize their work is just beginning. They have
already begun to think about training programs for health professionals
to teach the details of their therapy. While they have sought to
have their approach accepted as a bona fide medical treatment, they
also see enormous possibilities in terms of prevention of disease
and general nutritional support. When their work is proven, it should
be readily accepted into mainstream medicine as a legitimate approach
to cancer and other degenerative diseases.
While the Gonzalez-Isaacs program is hailed as a landmark breakthrough
in the treatment of cancer, the theory from which this therapy evolved
is based on a turn-of-the-century treatment from the University
of Edinburgh. We have asked Drs. Gonzalez and Isaacs to relate this
fascinating story in the following article, "Enzyme
Therapy - Back To The Beginnings."
Look for the interviews with five patients in the Gonzalez - Isaacs
program scheduled for the September/October
issue of totalhealth.
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