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SOME HISTORIC EXAMPLES OF SUPPRESSION OF POTENTIAllY USEFVJ CANCER TREATMENTS IN THE USA ~-- 1. William Bradley Coley -Coley's Fluid Despite bhe findings of and research by New York City surgeon William Bradley Coley at the ,tum of the century that a vaccine comprised of Streptococcus and a bacillus brought 124 of 312 inoperable cancer patients into remission and vifluab cure, and despitc similar findings by London surgcon C. Mansell Moulin on the use of suc/1 a vaccine, the American Medical Association in 1906 vigorously moved against "Coley's fluid" by claiming it was unproven and dangerous in that its use could persuade patients Ito abandon surgery, the only accepted form of cancer therapy. Hundreds of responses to the Coley approach occurred despite the pressure of the American Medical Association against this method. (Results of a double-blind test on t/1e Coley substance at New York University, Bellevue, resulting in positive responses, led to pressure for the study's chief author to leave the hospitaL) In the 1970s the Coley vaccine was removed from the "unprovens" list of the American Cancer Society so that limited research could begin on it once again. 2. Tom Deaken -Deaken Serum Laboratory technician Tom Deaken developed' an anticancer serum in the early 20th century. Montana surgeDn J. M. Scott, noting many cancer remissjons in previously hopeless cancer patients, made sUpj)Ort of the Deaken serum a lifelong commitment. Scott rapidly discovered that no United States medical journals-already controlled by the American Medical Association-wou~d publish his succ.essful case histories, and it was not until 1926-and in an Irish medical journal-that he could get the Deaken serum cases published. The Deaken serum use was never supported in the USA, which by the mid-1920s had become enamoured of radiation therapy as an adjunct to surgery. 3. William F. Koch -Glyxoylide In the 1920s, William F. Koch, Professor of Physiology at Detroit Medical College, developed a catalystffree-radical-scavenger preparation-Glyxoylide-which provided hundreds of cases of cancer remissions. So great was support by a number of physicians for the Koch treatment that by 1921-23 the American Medical Association was vigorously lobbying againsn it. The Koch work continued through the 1930s and 1940s with major research and use of this modality occurring in Canada, whose Ontario Cancer Commission in 1939 and 1940 provided objective forums to indicate Glyxoylide efficacy. Dr Koch worked in Mexico and Brazil in 1940-41, using Glyxoylide against other diseases including mental condi tions. Dr Koch was arrested in Florida in 1942 on a charge of false labelling, an area district attorney noting that his bail of $10,000 was set that high in order to keep him from return ing to Brazil to finish research work. Despite thousands of case histories in support of Glyxoylide, Dr Koch was subjected to Food and Drug Administration trials in 1942 and 1946 which resulted in a permanent injunction against the treatment in 1950. Dr Koch's therapy is now regarded as a precursor of free-radical pathology treatments, and hundreds more American patients have responded in whole or part to Glyxoylide, and to a cousin of the compound, Rodaquin, available in Mexico. In this decade, Americans seeking this form of therapy usually go to Mexico. FEBRUARY -MARCH 1995 NEXUS • 23