Fans of Houston doctor Stanislaw Burzynski love him for defying the medical establishment and offering alternative therapies to terminally ill patients.
The latest charges against Burzynski by the Texas Medical Board, which has tried and failed to take away his license for more than two decades, paint a very different picture.
The board says Burzynski has lured patients from around the world to his Texas clinic by promoting his unapproved drugs as safe, effective and available from nobody else — even though he knew most patients were ineligible for the experimental therapy, according to a 200-page complaint that describes problems with the care of 29 patients.
Desperate patients have sought out Burzynski because of his claims about antineoplastons, drugs that he invented and patented. Although they haven't been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the FDA has allowed Burzynski to dispense them through a clinical trial. The FDA put that trial on hold after the 2012 death of a 6-year-old boy, but gave Burzynski the green light to resume the trial last month.
Once patients arrived at Burzynski's office, the board says, he misled them in several ways...
Read the full article by Liz Szabo in USA Today: Texas medical board charges controversial cancer doctor
