:00:04. > :00:09.says he can cure cancer. The NHS are telling me my daughter is going to
:00:09. > :00:13.die. This man is telling me he thinks he can cure her. Celebrities
:00:13. > :00:17.have helped to raise hundreds of thousands to send British patients
:00:17. > :00:24.to his clinic. I think I would not be here if I wasn't on this
:00:24. > :00:28.treatment. But his experimental treatment is not recognised by
:00:28. > :00:32.mainstream medicine. I have never had the experience of having a
:00:32. > :00:37.patient survive. So why is he allowed to offer hope to the
:00:37. > :00:41.desperate? People say that what you do is sell hope. Can you imagine the
:00:41. > :00:51.US government would allow me to be here if I was just selling hope,
:00:51. > :01:07.
:01:07. > :01:14.parents were given the worst possible news. She'd been diagnosed
:01:14. > :01:19.with a rare and aggressive brain tumour. For the first year I
:01:19. > :01:24.couldn't accept she had cancer. Babies don't get cancer. It was like
:01:24. > :01:29.a car crash, it was awful. Luna was treated at Great Ormond Street
:01:29. > :01:33.Hospital in London. She was filmed there as part of a BBC documentary.
:01:33. > :01:43.Early last year, she had three operations on her brain to try to
:01:43. > :01:50.
:01:50. > :02:00.remove the tumour. But they didn't work. It's not as good news as we'd
:02:00. > :02:04.have hoped, I'm afraid. There's another and new nodule. Can we get
:02:04. > :02:07.that one out? We talked about that, but putting her through that, and we
:02:07. > :02:17.know we are leaving bits elsewhere... It just doesn't seem
:02:17. > :02:25.
:02:25. > :02:32.chemotherapy. I'm not in the business of taking away anybody's
:02:32. > :02:37.hope. Of course, we all hope and pray that we see a fantastic,
:02:37. > :02:47.dramatic response and it is maintained but, you know, that might
:02:47. > :02:57.
:02:57. > :03:03.that all they could do was wait for her to die. They were desperate for
:03:03. > :03:07.any other options, and that's when they found Dr Burzynski. It was all
:03:07. > :03:13.about hope. He said he hoped to cure my daughter. The plan was to try and
:03:13. > :03:20.cure her, that was his plan from day one. Lucy and her family decided to
:03:20. > :03:25.go with the one doctor who said he could keep Luna alive. So what does
:03:25. > :03:27.Dr Stanislaw Burzynski offer? He claims to have discovered a
:03:27. > :03:32.revolutionary and non-toxic treatment. He thinks the cure for
:03:32. > :03:36.cancer can be found inside our bodies. Substances in blood and
:03:36. > :03:44.urine, which switch off cancer cells. He calls them
:03:44. > :03:53.antineoplastons. Are you telling us that there's something in our that
:03:53. > :04:00.is different, a defence, not the immune system? It seems a simple
:04:00. > :04:05.solution, and celebrities have been happy to endorse it. Transformers
:04:05. > :04:13.star Josh Duhamel is wearing a lab coat. It could be transformational,
:04:13. > :04:21.it could change the way people see cancer. But it costs to be treated
:04:21. > :04:25.by Dr Burzynski and, for many families, that means fundraising. In
:04:25. > :04:31.the UK, Peter Kay, Cheryl Cole and Rufus Hound have all helped raise
:04:31. > :04:38.cash in good faith. Put a couple of quid on it, whatever you can
:04:38. > :04:45.afford. Amazing, right? It would be amazing. Hundreds of thousands of
:04:45. > :04:48.pounds have been raised to help desperate people get to Texas. But
:04:48. > :04:55.despite all this high-profile attention, Dr Burzynski's treatments
:04:55. > :05:00.and ideas have been rejected by mainstream medicine. Why have they
:05:00. > :05:04.been rejected? Well, because nobody knows exactly what is in his
:05:04. > :05:08.treatment. So when Lucy told her doctor that Great Ormond Street that
:05:08. > :05:13.she planned to turn to Dr Burzynski, they were concerned.
:05:13. > :05:18.suppose what I'm struggling with is when you come back, she's going to
:05:18. > :05:21.be on a treatment which I don't understand, the toxicity of which I
:05:21. > :05:28.can't work out. It's going to be really difficult for me to work out
:05:28. > :05:34.how to look after her. I know that. If I genuinely believed it was going
:05:34. > :05:39.to work then I'd be wishing you well. For Lucy, the choice was
:05:39. > :05:44.straightforward. Of course I'm going to go with him. If anyone had
:05:44. > :05:48.knocked on my door and said, try this, I would have tried it. The NHS
:05:48. > :05:56.are telling me my daughter is going to die. This man is telling me that
:05:56. > :05:59.he thinks he can cure her. Hello. How are you? Richard Grundy treats
:05:59. > :06:05.children with cancer and runs one of the UK's biggest research projects
:06:05. > :06:09.into brain tumours. He sees parents looking for alternatives when
:06:09. > :06:14.there's nothing else that can be done Ulster but he thinks Dr
:06:14. > :06:19.Burzynski is not solution. understand that that draw is very
:06:19. > :06:22.attractive. Unfortunately, the results from Dr Burzynski's clinic
:06:22. > :06:29.are not published in any format is acceptable to the scientific
:06:29. > :06:33.community. What -- What do you think about someone like Dr Burzynski who
:06:33. > :06:38.says he has a breakthrough for curing cancer but he isn't willing
:06:38. > :06:43.to share it? I think it's unethical. In science, it's all down to sharing
:06:43. > :06:47.your results of other scientists can test your theory. Dr Burzynski has
:06:47. > :06:51.published many reports and articles, but they are all week on detail. He
:06:51. > :06:55.has never published full results on the way that can be used by other
:06:55. > :07:01.researchers. The fundamental point about science is if I do an
:07:01. > :07:04.experiment, if I run a clinical trial, if I give somebody a
:07:04. > :07:07.treatment, I need to be absolutely open with what is I've done, so that
:07:07. > :07:11.somebody else can go and see if they can do the same thing as well. And
:07:11. > :07:16.if you can't reproduce the results, then people have no means of knowing
:07:16. > :07:20.whether it's true or not. So we can't know whether it works
:07:21. > :07:24.scientifically. And what's worse is Dr Burzynski's wonderdrug has never
:07:24. > :07:28.been approved as a cancer treatment. Dozens of British
:07:28. > :07:33.families are heading off to Texas to get a treatment that is still in
:07:33. > :07:40.clinical trials, the basic test drugs go through before they are
:07:40. > :07:45.licensed. Despite all this, Dr Burzynski continued to promote his
:07:45. > :07:55.antineoplastons as a safe and effective treatment for cancer. And
:07:55. > :07:56.
:07:56. > :08:00.parents keep putting their trust in him. Amelia Saunders was diagnosed
:08:00. > :08:06.in February 2012. Doctors said she had an aggressive brain tumour that
:08:06. > :08:12.would take her life. So the Saunders family turned to Dr Burzynski. They
:08:12. > :08:17.say he told them he could save Amelia, that she had a 54% chance of
:08:17. > :08:21.survival on his treatment. They paid �60,000 and at first it seemed to
:08:21. > :08:26.work. After we started the treatment, for a period of time it
:08:26. > :08:31.was stable, for quite a long time. For about five months it remained
:08:31. > :08:37.stable. She became happier, she went back to school and joined in with
:08:37. > :08:44.most things. And raising the money provided a focus for Amelia's
:08:44. > :08:54.friends and family. Everybody was so generous that we actually got a lot
:08:54. > :08:54.
:08:54. > :08:58.of things. But we raised the money so quickly... In 12 weeks we raised
:08:58. > :09:06.the money. It was phenomenal. Rather than just sit all year and feel
:09:06. > :09:11.helpless and think... Just waiting for her to die, we actually tried
:09:11. > :09:14.ourselves to administer a medicine that we thought might help her.
:09:14. > :09:19.how does he attract families onto a costly treatment that isn't
:09:19. > :09:25.approved? Well, he might not published full data or test results,
:09:25. > :09:35.but he is happy to take part in a feature film. He is now the Hiro,
:09:35. > :09:49.
:09:49. > :09:53.maxed out at the treatment revealed no tumour. We were very overjoyed.
:09:53. > :09:58.Dr Burzynski says his drug has been rejected because treatment is
:09:58. > :10:03.controlled by the cancer industry. Rather than a laboratory, it's here
:10:03. > :10:07.in the cinema he explains his science. Any science about how his
:10:07. > :10:11.treatment works, what genes he targets, he doesn't explain why
:10:11. > :10:15.these antineoplastons are lacking in the first place. He's just giving a
:10:15. > :10:21.generic overview of how cancer works and not explaining how its treatment
:10:21. > :10:25.will act. There's lots of anecdotes. People come on screen with very
:10:25. > :10:28.powerful stories. They are really convincing. Those people have got no
:10:28. > :10:33.reason to lie. But they are just single case studies, so it's very
:10:33. > :10:36.hard to get to the bottom of the data. You can't find credible
:10:36. > :10:42.evidence for these cures. They've never been published so I don't
:10:42. > :10:48.believe them. Until somebody is able to stop you... The movie also
:10:48. > :10:50.follows Dr Burzynski's battles with the US authorities. I want to bring
:10:50. > :10:55.my medicines to approval in the United States and elsewhere in the
:10:55. > :11:02.world and bring you to justice for causing the deaths of two cancer
:11:02. > :11:07.patients. For years the authorities have fought Dr Burzynski. The Texas
:11:07. > :11:10.Medical Board put him on probation for ten years. He sold his
:11:10. > :11:17.antineoplastons to both cancer and AIDS patients, despite the drug is
:11:17. > :11:21.not being approved. The trial is expected to last about two months.
:11:21. > :11:26.And the FDA, which oversees drugs trials, has battled with him over
:11:26. > :11:29.decades. But Dr Burzynski exploits a legal loophole. He treats patients
:11:29. > :11:39.with antineoplastons as part of a clinical trial, trials that have
:11:39. > :11:43.been going on for 20 years. It may not be science but the Burzynski
:11:43. > :11:51.movie offers hope to dying people. It certainly convinced Hannah
:11:51. > :11:59.Bradley and her partner, Pete. was, sort of, you have to watch this
:11:59. > :12:06.film. I was, like, you yes, yes. And then I stayed up and watched it
:12:06. > :12:11.twice. I was absolutely, we are going. Hannah has a brain tumour.
:12:11. > :12:14.Doctors in the NHS have said they've done all they could, so Hannah
:12:14. > :12:21.turned to Dr Burzynski. She is currently being treated with
:12:21. > :12:27.antineoplastons. What is your routine? I have a Hickman line that
:12:27. > :12:33.the fluid goes in. I just keep it attached. It does all the work for
:12:33. > :12:38.me. Hannah believes the Burzynski treatment is working for her. She
:12:38. > :12:43.says it has reduced the size of the tumour. What do you think about what
:12:43. > :12:48.people say about it? They've got no proof either way. There's proof that
:12:48. > :12:52.it works or that it doesn't work. But if there is no proof that it
:12:52. > :12:59.works, should you really be going near a doctor who can't prove that
:12:59. > :13:03.what he says is true? There's loads... There's loads. What says
:13:03. > :13:08.radiotherapy works? That is something that has come through the
:13:08. > :13:16.system. But it doesn't say it for everyone. It didn't work for me,
:13:16. > :13:26.obviously. I think I would not be here if I wasn't on this treatment.
:13:26. > :13:27.
:13:27. > :13:33.And that is the reality of the type of tumour I have. There are cases
:13:33. > :13:36.where it is clear Dr Burzynski's opinion has been wrong. Doctors in
:13:36. > :13:41.the UK told Amelia Saunders' parents heard tumour was growing, and they
:13:41. > :13:47.could see her condition was getting worse. But Dr Burzynski said
:13:47. > :13:51.Amelia's tumour was breaking up. was saying, the cysts are forming
:13:51. > :13:58.within the tumour, that means the tumour is dying. It just didn't add
:13:58. > :14:07.up to me that that could be the case, when she was so bad. I think
:14:07. > :14:10.he interpreted in a way he wants to. I think he sees MRI scans
:14:10. > :14:18.and... He has a certain amount of evidence that is presented to him
:14:18. > :14:22.and I think he got it wrong with us. To try and understand why so many
:14:22. > :14:32.people put their faith in Dr Burzynski's unproven treatments,
:14:32. > :14:32.
:14:32. > :14:38.I've come to the States. I'm about an hour outside Atlanta, in the
:14:38. > :14:42.countryside of Georgia, and I'm here to meet Wayne and Lisa-Marie
:14:42. > :14:52.Merritt. Wayne got cancer, and when he died, the couple turned to Dr
:14:52. > :14:59.Burzynski. How long have you had this place? We have been here since
:14:59. > :15:03.1991. Out here on their farm, the Merritts are having a tough time
:15:03. > :15:08.will stop Wayne's condition is terminal. He went to Dr Burzynski
:15:08. > :15:15.because he did not want a traditional chemo or radiotherapy.
:15:15. > :15:19.He seemed very nice, very interested. And we were still
:15:19. > :15:24.thinking, this is fine, this is going to be good. Everything is
:15:24. > :15:30.going to be all right. Wayne was not eligible for the antineoplaston
:15:30. > :15:34.trial, so the couple paid $15,000 to start an Dr Burzynski's targeted
:15:34. > :15:38.therapy treatment instead. He was given a cocktail of different
:15:38. > :15:42.drugs. But when they showed the list in a local oncologist, she was
:15:42. > :15:47.horrified. She said it would cause severe side effects with someone
:15:47. > :15:50.with his diagnosis. It could cause him to internally bleed out. It was
:15:50. > :15:57.dangerous, and there is no doctor in the world that would prescribe this
:15:57. > :16:01.type of concoction for someone with that diagnosis. Dr Burzynski says he
:16:01. > :16:06.is at the cutting edge of medicine and in future, all cancer patients
:16:06. > :16:10.will be treated in this way. cocktail of drugs and the spiralling
:16:10. > :16:20.costs led the Merritts to abandon the treatment. I feel like I was
:16:20. > :16:26.betrayed, just feel like they were in it just for the money. We felt
:16:26. > :16:30.like that money, we could just as well have thrown it in the fire and
:16:30. > :16:34.burned it, and it would have been just as good. And you are
:16:34. > :16:37.desperate. You see all the red flags, but you don't want to believe
:16:37. > :16:47.them, because you are so desperate, you are clinging to any kind of
:16:47. > :16:50.
:16:50. > :16:58.hope. To me, that is the worst kind of predator. Back on the road, I'm
:16:58. > :17:03.heading for Dr Burzynski's hometown. This is Huston in Texas, and this is
:17:03. > :17:08.where Dr Burzynski's clinic is based. And this is the road in from
:17:08. > :17:15.the airport into the city. Down this road, so many families have, because
:17:15. > :17:20.they are desperate, and they turn to Dr Burzynski for help. I am here to
:17:20. > :17:25.get some basic facts is - how many patients he has treated with
:17:25. > :17:29.antineoplastons, and how many have survived. He says he can't tell me
:17:29. > :17:39.because of FDA rules about new drugs, but the FDA have told us that
:17:39. > :17:39.
:17:39. > :17:46.is not true. Dr Burzynski has also refused requests for an interview.
:17:46. > :17:50.But the doctor has got a new PR man. We are keen to sit down and meet Dr
:17:50. > :17:55.Burzynski, but we would also be keen to look around the clinic and see
:17:55. > :18:00.what goes on inside. How likely is that, do you think? This time, it
:18:00. > :18:10.was not a flat refusal. They have asked me to call back later. I might
:18:10. > :18:12.
:18:12. > :18:17.be getting closer to meeting the man himself. Dr Burzynski has been in
:18:17. > :18:21.this city for 40 years. At the local Children's Hospital, they are well
:18:21. > :18:27.aware of him. They say they regularly have to treat very ill
:18:27. > :18:31.children from the Burzynski clinic. In my experience, Dr Burzynski's
:18:31. > :18:36.patients have come to our hospital when they are in extremists, that
:18:36. > :18:43.is, that children are not breathing well, they aren't thinking well and
:18:43. > :18:46.they need the help of life-support machines. Dr Graf says this is
:18:46. > :18:50.probably caused by a combination of their cancer getting worse and the
:18:51. > :18:55.side-effect of the Burzynski treatment. The characteristic is
:18:55. > :19:00.that some of the children coming with very high sodium levels. And
:19:00. > :19:05.they have been given this antineoplaston, which I'm not sure
:19:05. > :19:13.of all the components of it, and usually high-dose steroids. All of
:19:13. > :19:18.those treatments together have their own panel of adverse side effects.
:19:18. > :19:22.And that is what happened to Lucy Petagine's daughter, Luna. She came
:19:22. > :19:27.out for treatment at the busy and ski clinic, but ended up in
:19:27. > :19:34.intensive care. Luna's sodium levels were dangerously high. The
:19:34. > :19:38.antineoplastons almost killed her. There was this huge mass. We were
:19:39. > :19:42.like, how could that you may have grown this quickly? Texas Children's
:19:42. > :19:47.Hospital hate the Burzynski clinic. They said they have to clear up all
:19:47. > :19:51.his mess. The second you walk in the door, they said to us, are you a
:19:51. > :19:56.business to family? We were like, how did you know? They were like,
:19:56. > :20:00.come through. What was happening was actually killing Luna, because it
:20:00. > :20:05.put pressure on her brain stem. So we made the decision to take her off
:20:05. > :20:11.the machines and take her home. Luna's parents abandoned the present
:20:11. > :20:14.ski treatment. The best gives -- the Burzynski clinic told us Luna
:20:14. > :20:17.suffered a reversible side-effect and recovered fully, and that only a
:20:17. > :20:23.very small percentage of their patients end up at the Texas
:20:23. > :20:26.Children's Hospital. He must believe in what he is doing, but I have not
:20:26. > :20:32.been convinced by the existing scientific literature that his
:20:32. > :20:36.therapy has any efficacy. I would not seek out care for him -- from
:20:36. > :20:45.him for any of my loved ones, nor would I recommend it to any of my
:20:45. > :20:49.patients. I am still keen to meet him. Hi, it is Richard Bilton from
:20:49. > :20:53.BBC Panorama. I want to ask him face-to-face those key questions
:20:53. > :21:01.about how many people he has treated and how many have survived. We seem
:21:01. > :21:09.to be making progress. So this is the research centre, as you call it?
:21:09. > :21:14.INDISTINCT SPEECH. The Burzynski Research Institute. It
:21:14. > :21:18.has the union Jack flying on the top. Wayne, the PR man, has invited
:21:18. > :21:28.us to the production facility. It is where antineoplaston, the drug at
:21:28. > :21:31.
:21:31. > :21:35.the heart of Dr Burzynski's treatment, are manufactured.
:21:35. > :21:42.It is an extraordinary facility here. How much antineoplaston are
:21:42. > :21:46.you producing a day? Our average batch size is 300 litres. Wow, so
:21:46. > :21:52.hundreds of litres of antineoplastons a day. Yes, that is
:21:52. > :21:56.our capacity. And that goes to the clinic? Everything goes to the
:21:56. > :22:02.clinic. This whole area smells like urine, which used to be the key
:22:02. > :22:08.ingredient of the drug. It is now made from chemicals. It still smells
:22:08. > :22:15.of ammonia. Can you smell it? Or perhaps you are used to it. I am
:22:15. > :22:19.used to this! It is getting hard to work out what is going on. These
:22:19. > :22:28.people clearly support Dr Burzynski, even though there is no conclusive
:22:28. > :22:32.evidence that his drug works. That was extraordinary. It is this
:22:32. > :22:35.enormous industrial procedure on producing this drug that is not
:22:35. > :22:40.approved. And they have been doing that for nearly 30 years, churning
:22:40. > :22:46.out this stuff. They did answer some of our questions, but they did not
:22:46. > :22:51.answer the big, fat one, which is, does that drug make any difference
:22:51. > :22:56.in the treatment of cancer? We just don't know. But we might at last
:22:56. > :23:01.have a chance of getting those answers. I am told to head across to
:23:01. > :23:08.the main Burzynski clinic. I can meet the man himself. Nice to meet
:23:08. > :23:14.you. There is a welcoming committee. Dr Burzynski's inner
:23:14. > :23:18.circle - Wayne, the PR man, Mrs Burzynski and a member of the
:23:18. > :23:23.clinic's Management. After 20 minutes, and months of refusals, Dr
:23:23. > :23:29.Burzynski finally arrives to answer questions. Can antineoplastons cure
:23:29. > :23:35.cancer? Definitely, but not everybody, because this is a complex
:23:35. > :23:39.disease. How many people have you treated, and how many have survived?
:23:39. > :23:45.The phase two clinical trials were completed only a few months ago. I
:23:45. > :23:52.cannot release this information to you. The FDA say you could tell me.
:23:52. > :23:55.Give me the letter from the FDA. press office say you are allowed to
:23:56. > :24:00.tell me the details of the trial. The only thing you can't do is
:24:00. > :24:05.overly promote it, but I will not let you do that. You can tell me the
:24:05. > :24:09.detail. I cannot. Medical people are saying they would love the data to
:24:09. > :24:15.be published. You are asking the same question, although you look
:24:15. > :24:18.like a bright man. Are you catching Alzheimer's disease? One day it may
:24:18. > :24:26.save your life. You may need this treatment. People say you sell
:24:26. > :24:30.hope. You step in and sell hope. What do you make of that? There are
:24:30. > :24:33.many foolish people. We have concrete evidence. Can you imagine
:24:33. > :24:39.the US government dealing with us for so many years, they would allow
:24:39. > :24:42.me to be here if I just sell hope without hard evidence? Your drug is
:24:42. > :24:47.not approved yet. The drugs will be approved soon, because they are
:24:47. > :24:51.going through the approval process, which is normal. And you will see
:24:51. > :24:56.the results. You will see plenty of our publications soon, and your
:24:56. > :25:01.doctors will come to me to learn what we do. The clinic finally
:25:01. > :25:07.released some figures yesterday. They say 776 patients with brain
:25:07. > :25:11.tumours were treated in trials and that 15.5% had survived more than
:25:11. > :25:15.five years, which compares favourably to other treatments. But
:25:15. > :25:21.without more detail, scientists still can't check the research. Dr
:25:21. > :25:28.Graf relies on her own experience. have never seen a patient of Dr
:25:28. > :25:31.Burzynski's survive. You have never seen one survivor? No, but they come
:25:31. > :25:35.to me when they are critically ill and often at the end of their
:25:35. > :25:45.disease process. But I have never had the experience of having a
:25:45. > :25:46.
:25:46. > :25:49.patient survive. Amelia Saunders died in January. She was the little
:25:49. > :25:59.girl whose family were told by Dr Burzynski, her tumour is breaking
:25:59. > :26:07.In tears we saw you suffer, we watched you fade away. Our hearts
:26:08. > :26:12.were almost broken, you fought so hard to stay. The family say they
:26:12. > :26:15.still don't regret going to see Dr Burzynski. But they do have
:26:15. > :26:24.misgivings about the way they were treated, including that prediction
:26:24. > :26:31.that Amelia had a 54% chance of survival. That is wrong. That is a
:26:31. > :26:37.complete lie. The more accurate figure would be 1%, not 54%.
:26:37. > :26:42.Burzynski told Manna Rama he does not remember saying a figure, but at
:26:42. > :26:46.the time of their busy, his data indicated 56% survival for this
:26:46. > :26:50.group of patients over two years. He also says that Amelia survived
:26:50. > :27:00.longer than doctors in the UK originally predicted and that the
:27:00. > :27:03.
:27:04. > :27:10.clinic has not told anyone that they offer a cure. Last August, Lucy's
:27:10. > :27:16.daughter Luna also passed away. She was five. They are marking the
:27:16. > :27:21.six-month anniversary of her death. The Dr Burzynski treatment did not
:27:21. > :27:27.work for Luna, but her mum does not regret going. I think it gave us
:27:27. > :27:31.another year, I do. If I had not gone, I would be sat here without my
:27:31. > :27:36.daughter saying, God, if only I had tried it. You can't put a price on
:27:36. > :27:39.hope. If he is a fraud, he is a really bad man will stop but as a
:27:39. > :27:49.parent with a child who is dying and you are told this child is going to
:27:49. > :27:51.
:27:51. > :28:01.die, you would try anything. It is easy to understand the families who
:28:01. > :28:05.look for every last chance. Bye, Luna! But it is harder to understand
:28:05. > :28:15.how Dr Burzynski has been allowed to sell an experimental treatment did
:28:15. > :28:17.
:28:17. > :28:21.desperate and vulnerable but the past 30 years.
:28:21. > :28:27.On Thursday, a Panorama special. We go undercover in Westminster to