Cancer: Hope for Sale? Panorama

says he can cure cancer. The NHS are telling me my daughter is going to

die. This man is telling me he thinks he can cure her. Celebrities

have helped to raise hundreds of thousands to send British patients

to his clinic. I think I would not be here if I wasn't on this

treatment. But his experimental treatment is not recognised by

mainstream medicine. I have never had the experience of having a

patient survive. So why is he allowed to offer hope to the

desperate? People say that what you do is sell hope. Can you imagine the

US government would allow me to be here if I was just selling hope,

parents were given the worst possible news. She'd been diagnosed

with a rare and aggressive brain tumour. For the first year I

couldn't accept she had cancer. Babies don't get cancer. It was like

a car crash, it was awful. Luna was treated at Great Ormond Street

Hospital in London. She was filmed there as part of a BBC documentary.

Early last year, she had three operations on her brain to try to

remove the tumour. But they didn't work. It's not as good news as we'd

have hoped, I'm afraid. There's another and new nodule. Can we get

that one out? We talked about that, but putting her through that, and we

know we are leaving bits elsewhere... It just doesn't seem

chemotherapy. I'm not in the business of taking away anybody's

hope. Of course, we all hope and pray that we see a fantastic,

dramatic response and it is maintained but, you know, that might

that all they could do was wait for her to die. They were desperate for

any other options, and that's when they found Dr Burzynski. It was all

about hope. He said he hoped to cure my daughter. The plan was to try and

cure her, that was his plan from day one. Lucy and her family decided to

go with the one doctor who said he could keep Luna alive. So what does

Dr Stanislaw Burzynski offer? He claims to have discovered a

revolutionary and non-toxic treatment. He thinks the cure for

cancer can be found inside our bodies. Substances in blood and

urine, which switch off cancer cells. He calls them

antineoplastons. Are you telling us that there's something in our that

is different, a defence, not the immune system? It seems a simple

solution, and celebrities have been happy to endorse it. Transformers

star Josh Duhamel is wearing a lab coat. It could be transformational,

it could change the way people see cancer. But it costs to be treated

by Dr Burzynski and, for many families, that means fundraising. In

the UK, Peter Kay, Cheryl Cole and Rufus Hound have all helped raise

cash in good faith. Put a couple of quid on it, whatever you can

afford. Amazing, right? It would be amazing. Hundreds of thousands of

pounds have been raised to help desperate people get to Texas. But

despite all this high-profile attention, Dr Burzynski's treatments

and ideas have been rejected by mainstream medicine. Why have they

been rejected? Well, because nobody knows exactly what is in his

treatment. So when Lucy told her doctor that Great Ormond Street that

she planned to turn to Dr Burzynski, they were concerned.

suppose what I'm struggling with is when you come back, she's going to

be on a treatment which I don't understand, the toxicity of which I

can't work out. It's going to be really difficult for me to work out

how to look after her. I know that. If I genuinely believed it was going

to work then I'd be wishing you well. For Lucy, the choice was

straightforward. Of course I'm going to go with him. If anyone had

knocked on my door and said, try this, I would have tried it. The NHS

are telling me my daughter is going to die. This man is telling me that

he thinks he can cure her. Hello. How are you? Richard Grundy treats

children with cancer and runs one of the UK's biggest research projects

into brain tumours. He sees parents looking for alternatives when

there's nothing else that can be done Ulster but he thinks Dr

Burzynski is not solution. understand that that draw is very

attractive. Unfortunately, the results from Dr Burzynski's clinic

are not published in any format is acceptable to the scientific

community. What -- What do you think about someone like Dr Burzynski who

says he has a breakthrough for curing cancer but he isn't willing

to share it? I think it's unethical. In science, it's all down to sharing

your results of other scientists can test your theory. Dr Burzynski has

published many reports and articles, but they are all week on detail. He

has never published full results on the way that can be used by other

researchers. The fundamental point about science is if I do an

experiment, if I run a clinical trial, if I give somebody a

treatment, I need to be absolutely open with what is I've done, so that

somebody else can go and see if they can do the same thing as well. And

if you can't reproduce the results, then people have no means of knowing

whether it's true or not. So we can't know whether it works

scientifically. And what's worse is Dr Burzynski's wonderdrug has never

been approved as a cancer treatment. Dozens of British

families are heading off to Texas to get a treatment that is still in

clinical trials, the basic test drugs go through before they are

licensed. Despite all this, Dr Burzynski continued to promote his

antineoplastons as a safe and effective treatment for cancer. And

parents keep putting their trust in him. Amelia Saunders was diagnosed

in February 2012. Doctors said she had an aggressive brain tumour that

would take her life. So the Saunders family turned to Dr Burzynski. They

say he told them he could save Amelia, that she had a 54% chance of

survival on his treatment. They paid �60,000 and at first it seemed to

work. After we started the treatment, for a period of time it

was stable, for quite a long time. For about five months it remained

stable. She became happier, she went back to school and joined in with

most things. And raising the money provided a focus for Amelia's

friends and family. Everybody was so generous that we actually got a lot

of things. But we raised the money so quickly... In 12 weeks we raised

the money. It was phenomenal. Rather than just sit all year and feel

helpless and think... Just waiting for her to die, we actually tried

ourselves to administer a medicine that we thought might help her.

how does he attract families onto a costly treatment that isn't

approved? Well, he might not published full data or test results,

but he is happy to take part in a feature film. He is now the Hiro,

maxed out at the treatment revealed no tumour. We were very overjoyed.

Dr Burzynski says his drug has been rejected because treatment is

controlled by the cancer industry. Rather than a laboratory, it's here

in the cinema he explains his science. Any science about how his

treatment works, what genes he targets, he doesn't explain why

these antineoplastons are lacking in the first place. He's just giving a

generic overview of how cancer works and not explaining how its treatment

will act. There's lots of anecdotes. People come on screen with very

powerful stories. They are really convincing. Those people have got no

reason to lie. But they are just single case studies, so it's very

hard to get to the bottom of the data. You can't find credible

evidence for these cures. They've never been published so I don't

believe them. Until somebody is able to stop you... The movie also

follows Dr Burzynski's battles with the US authorities. I want to bring

my medicines to approval in the United States and elsewhere in the

world and bring you to justice for causing the deaths of two cancer

patients. For years the authorities have fought Dr Burzynski. The Texas

Medical Board put him on probation for ten years. He sold his

antineoplastons to both cancer and AIDS patients, despite the drug is

not being approved. The trial is expected to last about two months.

And the FDA, which oversees drugs trials, has battled with him over

decades. But Dr Burzynski exploits a legal loophole. He treats patients

with antineoplastons as part of a clinical trial, trials that have

been going on for 20 years. It may not be science but the Burzynski

movie offers hope to dying people. It certainly convinced Hannah

Bradley and her partner, Pete. was, sort of, you have to watch this

film. I was, like, you yes, yes. And then I stayed up and watched it

twice. I was absolutely, we are going. Hannah has a brain tumour.

Doctors in the NHS have said they've done all they could, so Hannah

turned to Dr Burzynski. She is currently being treated with

antineoplastons. What is your routine? I have a Hickman line that

the fluid goes in. I just keep it attached. It does all the work for

me. Hannah believes the Burzynski treatment is working for her. She

says it has reduced the size of the tumour. What do you think about what

people say about it? They've got no proof either way. There's proof that

it works or that it doesn't work. But if there is no proof that it

works, should you really be going near a doctor who can't prove that

what he says is true? There's loads... There's loads. What says

radiotherapy works? That is something that has come through the

system. But it doesn't say it for everyone. It didn't work for me,

obviously. I think I would not be here if I wasn't on this treatment.

And that is the reality of the type of tumour I have. There are cases

where it is clear Dr Burzynski's opinion has been wrong. Doctors in

the UK told Amelia Saunders' parents heard tumour was growing, and they

could see her condition was getting worse. But Dr Burzynski said

Amelia's tumour was breaking up. was saying, the cysts are forming

within the tumour, that means the tumour is dying. It just didn't add

up to me that that could be the case, when she was so bad. I think

he interpreted in a way he wants to. I think he sees MRI scans

and... He has a certain amount of evidence that is presented to him

and I think he got it wrong with us. To try and understand why so many

people put their faith in Dr Burzynski's unproven treatments,

I've come to the States. I'm about an hour outside Atlanta, in the

countryside of Georgia, and I'm here to meet Wayne and Lisa-Marie

Merritt. Wayne got cancer, and when he died, the couple turned to Dr

Burzynski. How long have you had this place? We have been here since

1991. Out here on their farm, the Merritts are having a tough time

will stop Wayne's condition is terminal. He went to Dr Burzynski

because he did not want a traditional chemo or radiotherapy.

He seemed very nice, very interested. And we were still

thinking, this is fine, this is going to be good. Everything is

going to be all right. Wayne was not eligible for the antineoplaston

trial, so the couple paid $15,000 to start an Dr Burzynski's targeted

therapy treatment instead. He was given a cocktail of different

drugs. But when they showed the list in a local oncologist, she was

horrified. She said it would cause severe side effects with someone

with his diagnosis. It could cause him to internally bleed out. It was

dangerous, and there is no doctor in the world that would prescribe this

type of concoction for someone with that diagnosis. Dr Burzynski says he

is at the cutting edge of medicine and in future, all cancer patients

will be treated in this way. cocktail of drugs and the spiralling

costs led the Merritts to abandon the treatment. I feel like I was

betrayed, just feel like they were in it just for the money. We felt

like that money, we could just as well have thrown it in the fire and

burned it, and it would have been just as good. And you are

desperate. You see all the red flags, but you don't want to believe

them, because you are so desperate, you are clinging to any kind of

hope. To me, that is the worst kind of predator. Back on the road, I'm

heading for Dr Burzynski's hometown. This is Huston in Texas, and this is

where Dr Burzynski's clinic is based. And this is the road in from

the airport into the city. Down this road, so many families have, because

they are desperate, and they turn to Dr Burzynski for help. I am here to

get some basic facts is - how many patients he has treated with

antineoplastons, and how many have survived. He says he can't tell me

because of FDA rules about new drugs, but the FDA have told us that

is not true. Dr Burzynski has also refused requests for an interview.

But the doctor has got a new PR man. We are keen to sit down and meet Dr

Burzynski, but we would also be keen to look around the clinic and see

what goes on inside. How likely is that, do you think? This time, it

was not a flat refusal. They have asked me to call back later. I might

be getting closer to meeting the man himself. Dr Burzynski has been in

this city for 40 years. At the local Children's Hospital, they are well

aware of him. They say they regularly have to treat very ill

children from the Burzynski clinic. In my experience, Dr Burzynski's

patients have come to our hospital when they are in extremists, that

is, that children are not breathing well, they aren't thinking well and

they need the help of life-support machines. Dr Graf says this is

probably caused by a combination of their cancer getting worse and the

side-effect of the Burzynski treatment. The characteristic is

that some of the children coming with very high sodium levels. And

they have been given this antineoplaston, which I'm not sure

of all the components of it, and usually high-dose steroids. All of

those treatments together have their own panel of adverse side effects.

And that is what happened to Lucy Petagine's daughter, Luna. She came

out for treatment at the busy and ski clinic, but ended up in

intensive care. Luna's sodium levels were dangerously high. The

antineoplastons almost killed her. There was this huge mass. We were

like, how could that you may have grown this quickly? Texas Children's

Hospital hate the Burzynski clinic. They said they have to clear up all

his mess. The second you walk in the door, they said to us, are you a

business to family? We were like, how did you know? They were like,

come through. What was happening was actually killing Luna, because it

put pressure on her brain stem. So we made the decision to take her off

the machines and take her home. Luna's parents abandoned the present

ski treatment. The best gives -- the Burzynski clinic told us Luna

suffered a reversible side-effect and recovered fully, and that only a

very small percentage of their patients end up at the Texas

Children's Hospital. He must believe in what he is doing, but I have not

been convinced by the existing scientific literature that his

therapy has any efficacy. I would not seek out care for him -- from

him for any of my loved ones, nor would I recommend it to any of my

patients. I am still keen to meet him. Hi, it is Richard Bilton from

BBC Panorama. I want to ask him face-to-face those key questions

about how many people he has treated and how many have survived. We seem

to be making progress. So this is the research centre, as you call it?

INDISTINCT SPEECH. The Burzynski Research Institute. It

has the union Jack flying on the top. Wayne, the PR man, has invited

us to the production facility. It is where antineoplaston, the drug at

the heart of Dr Burzynski's treatment, are manufactured.

It is an extraordinary facility here. How much antineoplaston are

you producing a day? Our average batch size is 300 litres. Wow, so

hundreds of litres of antineoplastons a day. Yes, that is

our capacity. And that goes to the clinic? Everything goes to the

clinic. This whole area smells like urine, which used to be the key

ingredient of the drug. It is now made from chemicals. It still smells

of ammonia. Can you smell it? Or perhaps you are used to it. I am

used to this! It is getting hard to work out what is going on. These

people clearly support Dr Burzynski, even though there is no conclusive

evidence that his drug works. That was extraordinary. It is this

enormous industrial procedure on producing this drug that is not

approved. And they have been doing that for nearly 30 years, churning

out this stuff. They did answer some of our questions, but they did not

answer the big, fat one, which is, does that drug make any difference

in the treatment of cancer? We just don't know. But we might at last

have a chance of getting those answers. I am told to head across to

the main Burzynski clinic. I can meet the man himself. Nice to meet

you. There is a welcoming committee. Dr Burzynski's inner

circle - Wayne, the PR man, Mrs Burzynski and a member of the

clinic's Management. After 20 minutes, and months of refusals, Dr

Burzynski finally arrives to answer questions. Can antineoplastons cure

cancer? Definitely, but not everybody, because this is a complex

disease. How many people have you treated, and how many have survived?

The phase two clinical trials were completed only a few months ago. I

cannot release this information to you. The FDA say you could tell me.

Give me the letter from the FDA. press office say you are allowed to

tell me the details of the trial. The only thing you can't do is

overly promote it, but I will not let you do that. You can tell me the

detail. I cannot. Medical people are saying they would love the data to

be published. You are asking the same question, although you look

like a bright man. Are you catching Alzheimer's disease? One day it may

save your life. You may need this treatment. People say you sell

hope. You step in and sell hope. What do you make of that? There are

many foolish people. We have concrete evidence. Can you imagine

the US government dealing with us for so many years, they would allow

me to be here if I just sell hope without hard evidence? Your drug is

not approved yet. The drugs will be approved soon, because they are

going through the approval process, which is normal. And you will see

the results. You will see plenty of our publications soon, and your

doctors will come to me to learn what we do. The clinic finally

released some figures yesterday. They say 776 patients with brain

tumours were treated in trials and that 15.5% had survived more than

five years, which compares favourably to other treatments. But

without more detail, scientists still can't check the research. Dr

Graf relies on her own experience. have never seen a patient of Dr

Burzynski's survive. You have never seen one survivor? No, but they come

to me when they are critically ill and often at the end of their

disease process. But I have never had the experience of having a

patient survive. Amelia Saunders died in January. She was the little

girl whose family were told by Dr Burzynski, her tumour is breaking

In tears we saw you suffer, we watched you fade away. Our hearts

were almost broken, you fought so hard to stay. The family say they

still don't regret going to see Dr Burzynski. But they do have

misgivings about the way they were treated, including that prediction

that Amelia had a 54% chance of survival. That is wrong. That is a

complete lie. The more accurate figure would be 1%, not 54%.

Burzynski told Manna Rama he does not remember saying a figure, but at

the time of their busy, his data indicated 56% survival for this

group of patients over two years. He also says that Amelia survived

longer than doctors in the UK originally predicted and that the

clinic has not told anyone that they offer a cure. Last August, Lucy's

daughter Luna also passed away. She was five. They are marking the

six-month anniversary of her death. The Dr Burzynski treatment did not

work for Luna, but her mum does not regret going. I think it gave us

another year, I do. If I had not gone, I would be sat here without my

daughter saying, God, if only I had tried it. You can't put a price on

hope. If he is a fraud, he is a really bad man will stop but as a

parent with a child who is dying and you are told this child is going to

die, you would try anything. It is easy to understand the families who

look for every last chance. Bye, Luna! But it is harder to understand

how Dr Burzynski has been allowed to sell an experimental treatment did

desperate and vulnerable but the past 30 years.

On Thursday, a Panorama special. We go undercover in Westminster to