THE POLITICS OF CANCER: PART SIX

Although three independent studies have confirmed the unique value of his treatments, the medical establishment has subjected Dr. Isseis to continuous personal and professional harassment.

SUPPRESSION OF ALTERNATIVE CANCER THERAPIES: DR. JOSEF ISSELS BY GARY NULL and LEONARD STEINMAN with special assistance by Kalev Pehme

Reprinted from August 1980 PENTHOUSE THE POLITICS OF CANCER: PART SIX

Although three independent studies have confirmed the unique value of his treatments, the'medical establishment has subjected Dr. Isseis to continuous personal and professional harassment.

Tucked among the foothills of the Bavarian Alps, close to West Germany's border with Austria, lies Rottach-Egern, a SUPPRESSION OF tiny Bavarian town that would go completely unnoticed by the Western world-if it were not for the fact that it happens to be ALTERNATIVE the place where Dr. Josef Isseis, perhaps the world 's most controversial cancer specialist, has his cancer clinic. Seventy-two years old now, Dr. Isseis is tall, with deep-set CANCER THERAPIES: eyes and a receding, silver-white mane. More than 30 years have passed since he began specializing in the treatment of cancer after clearly formulating his concept, based on the DR. JOSEF ISSELS scientific evidence, of what cancer is. As a British Broadcast­ ing Corporation television documentary about Isseis, com­ BY GARY NULL and LEONARD STEINMAN pleted in 1970, stated: " The Isseis concept is that a healthy with special assistance by Kalev Pehme body cannot develop cancer. Therefore he believes the entire metabolism of the body must be treated. Cancer cells which caused among its audience-a near record of 14 million Brit­ may lie dormant in everybody become active only when the ish viewers-so alarmed the pillars of the British medical es­ body is no longer capable of destroying them. Conventional tablishment that they redoubled their efforts, through the treatment is not enough. He says that often surgery and radi­ government, to prevent any reruns. They were successful: ation only stop the cancer temporarily. It can return later as the film has never again been shown. secondary tumors. To him cancer is a local symptom of a Ten years earlier the German medical establishment al­ general body deficiency, a sort of red alert that the whole most succeeded in destroying Dr. Isseis. Through their influ­ body is in danger.. . . " ence and pressure, some of its leaders managed to The BBC documentary "Go Climb a Mountain," encapsu­ persuade the public prosecutor to bring a criminal indictment lating the results of some two and a half years of research falsely charging Dr. Isseis with manslaughter and fraud. The and investigation of the Isseis clinic, was aired amid contro­ two trials in this case, among the most celebrated in German versy on November 3, 1970, after repeated attempts by pow­ medical and legal history, not only resulted in his complete erful members of the British medical community to block its exoneration in 1964 but also exposed the sole reason for production and, that failing, its broadcast. The sensation it framing him: he had refused to conform to conventional med- 1cine's narrow concept about how cancer orthodox or conventional medicine. In the mor without affecting the underlying should be treateci. Un1ted States the termmally ill cancer VIC­ cause" that enables the tumor to develop Since the :ate fortie-s . thousands of ter­ t:m has virtually no char1ce to survive five in the first instance. "There is need," he minal cancer patients have sought out Dr. years, let alone be rid of his ca11cer. For wrote then , "to examine into the question Isseis and his !reatment. pnmary cancer-cancer that has not yet whether cancer. rather than being a local Three independent studies of Dr. is­ spread to other sites of the body- the derangement, may be a general condi­ seis's medical records. conducted by overall odds for survival after convention­ tion of the whole body, of ·which the tu­ qualified experts of h!gh reputation, have al treatment are one in three. Once the mor is a symptomatic expression." confirmed a 16.6 percent cure rate last­ cancer has begun to metastasize, how­ Isseis subsequently found that cancer ing more than f1ve years among all the ever, the five-year-survival-rate odds fall is not a localized disease limited to the terminal cancer patients treated by Isseis off sharply. When the metastasized or particular part of the body where it with his combined therapy. No other doc­ spreading cancers become untreatablc, erupts. but is rather the result of a break­ tor or hospital in the world comes close inoperable, or incurable, the patient is down in the body's ability to destroy can­ to th1s cure rate. said to be terminal. In the case of cancer cer cells and prevent them from There is a considerable difference be­ of the kidney, for example, the five-year multiplying into cannibalistic colonies. tween cure and five-year survival. Con­ survival rate is 34 percent. But if it metas­ This breakdown, a process that may oc­ ventional medicine considers the latter to tasizes, the rate drops off to five percent; cur over a short period or take decades, be the equivalent of a cure. That this con­ and once the cancerous condition be­ begins with the gradual weakening of the ception is a myth becomes clear when comes untreatable by surgery, radiation. body's immune system , its key defense we consider the distinction between cure chemotherapy, and other conventional against cancer. and survival. In cure rates we are dealing means. the rate drors to zero. In other A healthy body, says Isseis, has an im­ with the number of cases ou t of the total words, the five-year survival rate cited by mune system that can destroy cancer treated in which, because of the therapy conventional medicine does not mean cells and prevent them from multiplying. given , cancer completely disappears disease-free survival, nor does it mean But if the immune system is weakened from the body or continues to remain in remission. In Dr. Isseis's definition the below a certain threshold, "it can no complete or prolonged rem:ssion without five-year survival rate means. for the longer kill cancer cells or prevent their recurrence or relapse. Survival rates, on most part. the patient has lived for at multiplication into cannibalistic colonies. tl"le other hand, have to do only with the least five years with no trace of cancer in From a single cancer cell, undisturbed in ability of the patient to survive for a peri­ the system. In fact, some of Dr. Isseis's its mitosis-cell division-a tumor even­ od of years despite the recurrence, re­ patients are alive and well 25 years after tually forms. We therefore see in the low­ lapse, or continuing presence of cancer receiving his therapy, without a single ered resistance of the body the cause of in his body. sign of cancer recurrence. the primary tumor, recurrence after sur­ In 1959 Dr. Arie Audier of Leiden Uni­ Yet, the old guard in the cancer estab­ gery or radiation, and all secondary tu­ versity in Holland alerted the world that lishments of the United States, Great Brit­ mors (metastases) . The tumor is only the Dr. Isseis was actually curing terminai ain, and West Germany contend that Dr. tip of the iceberg, the clinically observ­ cancer patients who had been declared Isseis is a charlatan. Instead of objective­ able result of the body's impaired resis­ incurable. That, at least, was the clear im­ ly looking at his work, they attempt to dis­ tance and inability to protect itself against plication of his study of 252 terminal can­ credit his work and his character. the proliferation of cancer cells into colo­ cer patients trea.ted by Dr. Isseis more The remarkable 16.6 percent cure rate nies. The tumor is the symptomatic ex­ than five years previously. The cases he Isseis has achieved in terminal cases is pression of a disease which involves the analyzed involved more than 35 d1tferent perhaps the most dramatic evidence of whole body-cancer disease." types of cancers, from metastasized the effectiveness of his therapy. He em­ The relation between cancer and the breast and progressive liver cancers to ploys the same therapy to prevent cancer weakening of the immune system is illus­ metastasized prostate and progressive recurrence after surgery, irradiation, or trated by what happens in the case of a colon-rectal cancers. In each case the di­ both, and his results in this area appear donor skin graft. The body rejects the agnosis had been independently estab­ even more impressive. graft because of the action of the immune lished and microscopicf!lly confirmed In 1970 a follow-up study was made of system. For the graft to " take hold, " the prior to the patient's admission to Dr. Is­ 370 such patients treated by him up to immune system must be suppressed by seis's clinic. 1960. They had received his therapy the injection of certain toxic drugs. An The Audier study, published on Octo­ after undergoing surgery and Irradiation analogous phenomenon, Isseis points ber 3, 1959, in Die Medtzimsche, a prin­ by their prior physicians. The results: 15 out, takes place in the genesis of cancer. cipal German medical Jou rnal , found that years afterward 322 or 87 percent (as he Effectual " suppression," or chronic of these 252 terminal patients, 42, or reported in Clinical Trials Journal, a Brit­ weakening of the immune-defense sys­ 16.6 percent, were alive, well, and com­ ISh medical publication) were still " alive tem , occurs, in the Isseis hypothesis, as pletely free of cancer five years after re­ and well ... with no relapses or detect­ the result of pathological processes aris­ ceiving Isseis's treatment. able metastases to date." World statis­ ing out of a combination of external and Another study 15 years later showed tics. on the other hand, show a relapse internal "insults" to the body's systems, that, of these, 39 were slill al1ve, well. and rate of 50 percent. It therefore appears further complicated by genetic factors . cancer free . Dr. John Anderson. a distin­ that Isseis's therapy, if given shortly after Among the external causes are environ­ guished cancer authority on the faculty of surgery, irradiation. or both for primary mental contaminants, such as toxic King's College Hospital 1n London, con­ cancer of any type, enhances the odds chemicals and gases; certain food pre­ cluded-after a careful rev1ew of term1nal against relapse by 37 percent; in other servatives and additives; foods depleted cases treated by Dr. Isseis- that Audier's words, his follow-up therapy reduces the of nutritional value by processing, injec­ finding of a 16.6 percent cu re rate couid danger of cancer recurrence to 13 per­ tion, and storage; low- and high-level ra­ be projected for all the terminal cancer cent. diation. Among the 1nternal causes are patients treated by Isseis 's therapy. The Before becoming a cancer specialist, chronic low-grade infections, bacterial team of experts quietly retained by the Dr. Isseis as a young surgeon repeatedly diseases, insufficient cellular oxygen­ BBC, prior to its production of "Go Climb witnessed the recurrence of cancer in pa­ ation, stress and psychic trauma, and he­ a Mountain," reached the identical con­ tients despite their having undergone sur­ reditary and mutagenic factors, among clusion . gery and radiation. As far back as 1935. others. The weakenmg of the immune An appreciation of the dimens1ons of he noied that this appears to be due to system in turn undermmes the interrela­ the Isseis cure rate 1n termmal cases re­ the fact that surgery and 1rradiat10n tionships existing between all the body's quires comparison w1th the st3!1SIICS for " merely deal w1th the local area of the tu- systems. The result is the creation in the body of an environment favorable to the Isseis's patients also has a positive psy­ thritis, arteriosclerosis, among others. proliferation of cancer cells tnto a tumor. chological and stress-relief value. Con­ That same year he lea sed a 30-bed ward Isseis's concept is that " cancer is not cerning the Isseis therapy, which he in the local hospital, where he admitted just a local disease confined to the partic­ painstakingly analyzed, Dr. Anderson and treated his bedridden patients. His ular place in the body where the tumor confidentially reported to the BBC in treatment theory, wtth tmmunotherapy as manifests itself but is a general disease March 1969: " In essence the treatment is tis cornerstone. was comtng tn to focus. of the whole body." The treatment, there­ to encourage the normal mechanisms of By January 1951 he had hts ftrst success fore, that offers the best chance of suc­ the body, which already deal with a large tn cunng term tnal cancer Kiithe Gerlach, cess in combatting cancer ts that whtch number of cancer cells, to be strength­ a 41 -year-old woman wtth utenne cancer treats " not merely the tumor but also the ened so that they bring about a natural that had spread to her abdommal wall, whole body, which has produced the tu­ remisston of the dtsease. Some of the had been advised that her condtlton was mor." Based on thts hypothesis, Isseis cases I saw at the clinic would have been not treatable Surgery had been ruled out developed his combmed therapy, which regarded as hopeless by phystctans in tn her case because of medtcal compli­ aims at: (1) restoring the body's own de­ the United Ktngdom. My overall opinion cattons. As a last resort. she turned to Dr. fense mechanisms; and (2) eliminating ts that the Isseis approach to the treat­ Isseis. The result of hts therapy was that the tumor by surgery, trradtation, and the ment of cancer ts a untque and pioneer­ her cancer regressed-and dtsap­ circumspect use of chemotherapy. Thus, ing solution to a very difficult pro­ peared. his treatment consists of a basic broad­ blem ...." In May 195 1. Dr. Isseis tned hts com­ spectrum approach to restore and regen­ btned treatment lor the second ttme on a erate the body's defense mechanisms, patten! who had been unsuccessfully and specific measures directed against treated by hormones lor a progresstve, the localized tumor. prostate cancer. The pa tten!, Karl Included in the treatment process are Gtschler, a Dutch shtpptng magnate fever therapy, oxygen or ozone infusion, whose cancer had metastastzed to hts and detoxification of the body. Areas of pelvts and sptne, had little hope that Is­ chronic infection, such as decaying or seis could reverse the progress of the devitalized teeth and inflamed tonsils, are dtsease, but he was tmp ressed by Is­ removed; for these are factors that con­ Three independent studies of seis's treatment conce;Jt. Ounng the tribute to impairing the effictent operation ' course of therapy, Gtschler learned that of the body's immune-defense system. Dr. Isseis's medical records opposttton and resentment were growmg Isseis's patients ate maintamed on a have confirmed a 16.6 at the hospital agatnst the combtned vegetarian diet of whole gratns and fiber, treatment. and he alerted Isseis Soon supplemented by enzymes, trace mmer­ percent cure rate ... among alter the warnmg the hospttal admmtstra­ als, and selected vitamins (with emphasis terminal cancer patients . . .. lton formally forbade Isseis from treattng on vitamins A, B complex, C, and E). It ts cancer pattents wtth hts unorthodox fascinating to consider that many of the No other doctor in the world methods. therapies used by Isseis for more than 30 comes close to this cure rate. Gtschler"s condttton detenorated. and years are beginning to be investigated in shortly before hts death he urged Dr. Is­ the United States. seis to set up hts own cltntc; and he ar­ •Isseis, for example, has for years ~ ranged to provtde the ltnanctng. Wtth the banned smoked foods from the diet of funds from Gischler's estate. Isseis con­ cancer patients in the conviction that verted a hotel tn Rottach-Egern, over­ these have a cancer potential. Recent looktng the Tegernsee, tnto the Rtngberg findings at U.S. cancer-research centers Cltnic. Here he tntended to develop hts now confirm his contention cancer therapy further and to document •Several cancer-research centers in hts ftndtngs mettculously so that they the Umted States are experimenting with TRiAL AND ERROR would be accesstble to authonzed doc­ ways to raise the body's temperature as Dr. Josef Isseis's dedtcated interest in tors and tnstttultons. a means of killing cancer cells. Isseis has improving conventional medtcine's often Isseis's tmpresstve results at hts new been using fever therapy for years- be­ unimpressive results in treating serious clintc began drawtng the attenlton of the cause he knew that malignant cells are diseases began when he first became a Bavanan medtcal establishment One pa­ extremely vulnerable at body tempera­ doctor-in the Germany of the thirties. tten!. Thea Dohm, would subsequently tures above 105 degrees Fahrenheit. Patients with chronic dtseases, desperate play a role in Isseis's hie. She was • Cancer institutions in the United for relief after their phystcians were un­ brought as a termtnal cancer patten! to States recently reported that oxygen and able to help them , consulted Dr. Isseis. the Rt ngberg Cltntc on October 29, 1952. ozone are capable of ktlling cancer cells. Using diet, vitamins, homeopathic prep­ Su rgery and radtatton by her physict ans Isseis has been injecting oxygenated arations, exercise regtmens, and other had not been able to halt the spread of a cross-matched blood into his patients for holistic means in addition to conventional deadly ltbroblastic sarcoma enct rcling years with the objective of destroying medicine's methods, he learned that he her sptne lt ke a snake. Under Isseis's cancer cells. In addition, those of Isseis's was able to treat many chronic diseases treatment her cancer was rendered dor­ cancer patients able to do so are encour­ successfully; and from his observations mant. Alter lour months Isseis dis­ aged to climb mountain trails or to jog in and review of the available literature he charged her as fttto resu me a normal life. order to enhance their oxygen intake. became convinced that stimulation of the But a year and a half later she was back During their two and a half years of re­ body's own ability to fight disease might agatn, wtth a stzable new fibrosarcoma of search for the BBC documentary on Is­ also be the way to treat cancer. the left lung. Isseis's thera py thts time in­ seis, the film 's producers were so At a medical conference in 1950 in cluded a nontoxtc vacctne known as astonished at the sight of Isseis's patients Freudenstadt, tn the Black Forest, Dr. Is­ Neo-Carctn, whtch European phystcians climbing the mountains towenng over the seis presented a paper whtch showed had found to be eflecltve tn many of thetr Ringberg Clinic that they entitled their film that he had cured 60 patients--consid­ pattents. Thea rebounded under Isseis's " Go Climb a Mountain." ered incurable by their previous doc­ therapy and su rvtved unttl 1979. Dr. John Anderson, professor of medi­ tors-of such diseases as asthma, liver There is a curious postscnpt. The news cine at King's College in London, be­ cirrhosis, glomerulonephritis (an inflam­ of Dr. Isseis's results tn Thea Dohm's lieves that the mountain climbing of matory kidney dtsease), rheumatoid ar- case rippled through the medical com- munity of southern Bavaria, and some 11 method to treat cancer successfully. It is not only the local manifestation, the tu­ years later, in 1968, reached the carefully contended . . . that he is aware of the mor, but as well the whole body which attuned ears of the ACS. It issued a re­ complete ineffectiveness of the so-called produced it." port to cancer specialists, condemning ... tumor treatment." It urged that he be The trial had a Kafkaesque quality. For Dr. Isseis for using Neo-Carcin. It is un­ remanded to jail, inasmuch as there was example, the prosecution alleged that Dr. clear why the ACS tabooed the use of the danger that "he might flee or attempt to Isseis had dissuaded Karl Wiesinger, 59, vaccine, in wide use in European medi­ conceal information," and it alleged that suffering from cancer of the penis, from cine since 1905. If Neo-Carcin was as in­ he had prepared for all conJingencies by having surgery. But his widow, daughter, effective as the ACS implied, we can only depositing huge amounts in " foreign and a copatient who had been at the conclude that it was a superfluous part of banks" so that he would be able "to Ringberg Clinic during the same period, Isseis's therapy. If, on the other hand , it work abroad.'· as well as his family doctor, all called as was not superfluous, then the ACS falsely Before his arrest Isseis had married a witnesses for the prosecution, testified to condemned its use to the detriment of all very remarkable woman, lisa Maria Klos. his adamant refusal to undergo surgery cancer patients. In any event, we must She vividly recalls her husband's impris­ even prior to his admission to the clinic. assume, ACS was oblivious of the fact onment. "Originally he was charged with In June 1955, not quite a year after leav­ that Dr. Isseis had not used Neo-Carcin having kept two patients from getting sur­ ing Isseis 's care he underwent surgery at since 1962. He had replaced it with what gery who later died, and with promising a a university hospital, where he received he considered a more appropriate vac­ cure to four other patients." Charges radiation therapy, but he died four cine. Even so, Dr. Isseis remains on the were fabricated for two more allegedly months later. ACS unproven methods list. negligent homicide cases, presumably The prosecution's thrust was that Dr. Isseis's method of therapy was widely on the theory that the more charges there Isseis didn't insist strongly enough. The reported by the media, and his fame be­ were, the greater the likelihood of con­ same theory was pursued in the case of gan to spread but not without repercus­ victing Dr. Isseis. Mrs. Isseis recalls that Albert Matzeit, a 56-year-old printer who sions. after her husband's arrest, his lawyer in June 1956 learned that he had cancer In 1954 he was refused permission to acidly commented to one of the judges of the left larynx. In the last week of Feb­ speak to a cancer conference in Sao how absurd it was to entertain the notion ruary 1959, he came to the Ringberg Paulo, Brazil. In 1955 Dr. H. Weiler, that Isseis, noted for his candor, could Clinic. He was examined by a throat spe­ president of the Bavarian Medical Asso­ have defrauded anyone, let alone his pa­ cialist there, who recommended immedi­ ciation, visited the Ringberg Clinic and tients. The judge replied, according to ate surgery. Dr. Isseis concurred. The told Isseis of rumors that he-Isseis­ Mrs. Isseis, "It is not so much the ques­ patient, however, afraid of dying under promised patients a cure, overcharged tion of Dr. Isseis. He will be convicted in a the knife like his two brothers, turned them, and ejected any who were unable show trial, and then all doctors in Germa­ down the advice. In June. a month after to pay. We1ler sat1sfied himself that the ny using unconventional methods of leaving the Ringberg Clinic, he almost rumors were maliciously false-and sub­ treating cancer will be driven out of prac­ choked to death on his cancer and , as a sequently referred patients to the clinic tice." She was further shocked when she matter of dire emergency, was admitted h1mself. His investigation disclosed that contacted Dr. Theodor Weiss, the chief to the hospital in Dusseldorf, where he privately referred patients unable to pay public prosecutor. " I said to Herr Weiss, submitted to surgery. Less than a year were treated free. · surely there must be some mistake. later, he, too, was dead. His widow, A year later the medical conspiracy Weiss replied that it was no mistake; he primed by establishment experts, attribut­ aga1nst Isseis began in earnest. In March had been advised by competent doctors ed her husband's death to Isseis's crimi­ 1956 a determined band of 12 physi­ that it was high time to stop the work of nal laxity in not forcibly compelling the cians met secretly at Hinterzarten in the this man." printer to submit to surgery four weeks Black Forest to discuss how best to "put In mid-June 1961 the trial began. Any earlier in May. an end to the charlatan Isseis." The effort American or other court rooted in British Else Warnken, happily married and the to d1scredit, disgrace, and stop Isseis jurisprudence would have booted out the mother of an eight-year-old daughter, from practicing his cancer therapy was indictment long before it reached the trial came to the Ringberg Clinic in January under way. stage. But the German courts-like those 1955. The doctors in Bremen, her home In August 1958, Isseis invited the Ba­ of other countries in continental Europe­ city, had advised radical surgery for re­ varian Medical Association and the Ger­ stem from an oligarchical tradition, one in moval of both her breasts as well as her man National Cancer Society to inspect which the accused has the burden of ovaries because of cancer. She confided his clinic and work. They ignored the invi­ proving himself innocent of the charges. in Dr. Isseis that she was dead set tation. The fraud counts alleged that Isseis against surgery because she was afraid By this t1me Dr. Arie Audier, of Leiden had deliberately deceived three terminal her husband would leave her. Dr. Isseis University, had completed the first inde­ cancer patients by promising to cure concurred with the Bremen physicians pendent audit of Isseis's meticulous re­ them (presumably to bilk them of fees), and warned her of the risk of not having cords, and he attempted to publish the knowing that his therapy was a fake, and surgery. She and her husband both opt­ results, but medical journals refused to that after fleecing them he had sent them ed to take that risk in· the hope that Is­ print them. F1nally, Die Medizinische, a off to die. But the testimony at the trial seis's therapy would be effective. In fact reputable German medical journal, pub­ conclusively showed that the fraud it was, but she failed to adhere to the lished Audier's study. counts were pure fabrications: the court home regimen that Isseis prescribed for In September 1960, Isseis was arrest­ dismissed them. her. A readmission followed later that ed and charged with fraud and man­ That left four counts of negligent homi­ year, and again she failed to follow slaughter. According to Gordon Thomas, cide. The prosecution's unarticu.lated through. In August 1957 she underwent the coproducer of the BBC documentary premise was that even though these radical surgery, but metastases had oc­ on Isseis, in his excellent book Or. isseis counts, too, were contrived, the court still curred. She received radiation and che­ and His Revolutionary Cancer Treatment ought to find him guilty, inasmuch as his motherapy in Bremen for the next three (Peter H. Wyden, New York), the warrant methods did not accord with convention­ years, but died in July 1960. Again, the for Isseis's arrest contained the following al practice in the treatment of cancer. prosecution's position was that Isseis statement: "The accused claims to treat Dr. Isseis addressed the black-robed was responsible for her death because of· .. . cancer . .. and even to cure incurable judges. Surgery, radiation, "and other his failure to persuade her to undergo cancer patients by means of . . . so­ conventional measures" were important surgery rather than his therapy. called tumor therapy. In fact (he] has nei­ in the treatment of cancer, he stated. On the final day of July 1961, after a ther reliable diagnostic methods nor a "However, I also believe we must treat six-week trial, the court found Dr. Isseis gu1lty of negligent homic1de in the Wle­ contrary. cla1med Bauer, cancer ongl­ def1n1tely had cancer." singer, Matzell, and Warnken cases. nates at a s1ngle spot and by its action Prof. Herwig Hamp~rl. a pathologist, "They would have undergone surgery," causes general d1sease 1n the body But who took the stand aga1nst Isseis, had di­ the court said in part, "if the accused had then he made a strange concess1on. agnosed a female pat1ent of Isseis as ins1sted and not spoken so opt1m1St1cally .Judgmg the et11cacy of Isseis's treatment havmg a carcmoma m 1955. Isseis sub­ about his methods .... " aga1nst that of conventional med1c1ne sequently treated her. and 1n lime the car­ The black-gowned court pres1dent icily was not a matter to be dec1ded by tnal. cmoma disappeared Just pnor to the dealt out the sentence-one year m pns­ he sa1d. but would reqUire a commiSSIOn second tnal, the med1cal expert ass1stmg on-but allowed the doctor to remain at of cancer experts The 1ssue. he main­ the prosecutor asked Hamperl whether liberty until h1s appeal would be decided tained. was not whether Isseis had an ef­ he could conflfm h1s ongmal d1agnos1S. by the West German Supreme Court at fective treatment aga1nst cancer " but He wrote back, adv1S1ng that he could not Karlsruhe. whether he had the f1rm obligation to per­ find the sl1des conta1nmg the t1ssue sam­ The verdict drew almost un1versal con­ form or refer patients for surgery-the ple, that the ong1nal diagnos1s had not demnation from the German press. An only successful treatment 1n the early been made by h1m-and that another pa­ article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine, a stage of cancer." thologist doubted 11 was cancer. Howev­ leadmg West German da1ly, claimed that Isseis's concept of the genes1s of can­ er, Isseis's lawyer produced a letter Isseis did not and could not rece1ve JUS­ cer. contrary to conventional med1cme's Hamperl had wntten to the pat1ent's fam­ liCe. The day following the sentence, the theory as expressed by Bauer, IS that ily doctor 1n July 1961 In 11 Hamperl had respected newspaper Ote Welt implied cancer IS "a general chron1c 1llness of the clearly stated that after exammmg the that the verdict had doomed the hopes of body" wh1 ch may eventually lead to the sample agam, he reafflfmed h1s conclu­ many cancer pat1ents who otherw1se body's " permanent Inability to destroy Sion that 11 was cancer. Nevertheless, might have l1ved as the result of Isseis's cancer cells and fmally allows the forma­ Hamperl had mformed the prosecutor's therapy. Mail decrying the verd1ct poured tion of a tumor The tumor IS therefore med1cal expert, based on h1s alleged rec­ .1n. Among the letters was a note of sup­ merely a late-stage symptom, accidental­ ollection of what the "other patholog1st" port from Albert Schweitzer, encourag1ng ly triggered off but able to exist and grow had told h1m, that " Isseis cannot claim Isseis not to be daunted. only 1n a bed already prepared for 11." the case as a cure for him." At the beg1nnmg of May 1962. the I h1s "bed'' Isseis calls "the tumor mi­ " How do you explain that?" asked Is­ West German Supreme Court ordered a lieu." ll1s the result, accord1ng to Isseis's sets's lawyer Hamperl couldn't. He was new tnal on the grounds that the lower theory, of " secondary damage" to the excused from the w1tness dock court had erred in refusing to permit the body's organs and organ1c systems. The So 11 went: the prosecutor's experts, al­ defense to mtroduce spec1f1c ev1dence of causat1ve factors responsible for this sec­ though adm1t11ng that patients had had the many terminal cancer patients cured ondary damage may originate outside complete remiSSions after Isseis's treat­ by Isseis's method at the R1ngberg Clin1c the body-for example. from carcinogen­ ment. res1sted conclud1ng that there was The second trial finally got under way on IC agents and low-level radiation-or In­ any causal connection between h1s treat­ October 2. 1964, with Norbert Kukel­ ternally. as m the case of wal and ment and the remiss1on in every case. mann, a 35-year-old tnal lawyer. m com­ bactenal mfect1ons or even stress and They d1sputed the diagnoSIS of cancer m mand of the defense. Bes1des the host of psych1c trauma IllS, m short. the effect of each case, even though 1n all cases w1tnesses he would call to refute the pnor 1nsults to the body's systems that these d1agnoses had been made by can­ charge that Isseis had failed to advise h1s leads to their chron1c 1mpa1rment. As Is­ cer specialists 1n renowned hosp1tals and pat1ents properly-Karl Wies1nger, Albert sets puts 11, th1s damage cumulatively af­ med1cal mslitutlons throughout Europe Matze1t, and Else Warnken-to obtain fects "the functional, regutat1ve, and and had been conf1rmed and recon­ surgery, the appellate dec1sion had made humoral balance between organs and or­ firmed before the pat1ent ever came to 11 poss1ble to call experts who would pul­ gan systems" to the po1nt that one or Dr. Isseis venze the opposition's freewheelmg In­ more systems are severely weakened in Thea Dohm. Kathe Gerlach, and other nuendoes that Isseis's method was the1r ability to d1spose of toxms given off pat1ents cured of the1r cancers by Dr. Is­ worthless and that he was a charlatan. by dis1ntegrat1ng cells. The cancerous seis test1fied at the tnal. In all, 34 repre­ At the outset the defense attempted to cond1t1on. therefore, IS not cured merely sentative cases of termmal cancer cured establish through the test1mony of Dr. by the removal of the local manifestation, by Dr Isseis's method of therapy were Spohr, former admmistrator of the Ger­ the tumor, but the whole body must be presented w1th full, meticulously authenti­ man National Cancer Society, what Isseis treated 1n order to restore the body's ef­ cated documentation. The defense mtro­ had been led to believe-namely, that the fectiveness 1n destroy1ng cancer cells or duced ev1dence that Dr Isseis 1n 1953 Indictment was the d1rect outgrowth of an 1n preventing them from mull1ply1ng mto had completely cured Elisabeth Dreyer, overt conspiracy to frame and convict Is­ coton1es. the 34-year-old, w1dowed mother of two seis of spurious charges-In order to Dr. P. Kretz, ed1tor of the Austnan Can­ children, of a mass1ve cancer that filled eliminate the threat his therapy posed to cer Soc1ety 's JOurnal, test1f1ed 1n favor of her abdomen. Dr. Bodo Manstein, a the med1cal establishment. As for the the "whole-body" approach. PhySICians, proseculion cancer expert, had exam­ charge that Dr. Isseis had urged treat­ he suggested . should not be res1stant to Ined Mrs. Dreyer and her med1cal re­ ment by h1s method m preference to sur­ Isseis's whole-body therapy m the face of cords pnor to the tnal, she was still gery, Dr. Hemz Laprell, med1cal head of strong stat 1St1cal ev1dence that 11 1s effec­ cancer free, 11 years after rece1ving Is­ the Tegernsee Hospital, testified that 1n tive and that '' "offers .. an 1mproved sets's therapy and follow-up care. "I am one four-year period alone Isseis had re­ chance of a cure. ' sure the patient would have died without ferred 49 patients to the Tegernsee Hos­ Prof. Julius Reis, an expert' radiologist the systematic treatment of Dr. Isseis," pital for cancer surgery. m gynecotog1cal cases, test1f1ed for the he responded under cross-exam1nation. But the decisive battle came when the prosecution that he did not believe that He also admitted that 11 is important to med1cal experts called by the defense Isseis had ever cured "even one genu1ne have ctm1cs such as Isseis's and that he squared off aga1nst the prosecution's ex­ case of cancer." Under cross-examina­ was "receplive to Dr. Isseis's efforts .... perts Prof Karl Bauer. a cancer special­ tiOn, however, Reis, admitted that estab­ When he has performed cures, we lSI and also a professor of surgery at lishment gynecotog1sts often could not should recognize them. I recognize the He1delberg UnJvers,ty, led off the pros­ distinguish between tumor recurrence exactness of the case notes and the re­ ecution's testimony. He dended the Is­ and the aftereffects of rad1at1on, and that sponsible work 1n which the clinic en­ seis concept that cancer is a chron1c th1s led to situations in· wh1ch women gages." d1sease of the whole body, of wh1ch the were subjected to mutilatmg radical mas­ The trial came to an end on December tumor IS but a local symptom. On the tectomies ''without any certa1nty that they 9, 1964. Two days later the court ren- dered 1ts f1nal verd1ct: not guilty. In part. out the world. As the investigation went to Gordon Thomas. as well as all its ar­ though, the tnal succeeded 1n 1ts obtec­ on, Thomas and his coproducers real­ chival materials, and he canceled the tive , for 11 forced the clos1ng of the Ring­ ized that they had the makings of a very premiere broadcast of " Go Climb a berg Clin1c-with the resultant deaths of powerful film. Mountain, " which had been scheduled all the pat1ents who were under Dr. Is­ During this investigation, however, for March 17, 1970. A front-page art1cle seis's care at the lime and otherw1se troubles began at the top level of the in the London Observer on October 18, might have surv1ved because of h1s treat­ BBC. "I was called in by a number of se­ 1970, brought a sw1ft demal by the BBC ment. nior BBC execut1ves," Thomas recalls. of any intent to suppress the film. and It "One of them, the head of features, Mr. was rushed into the broadcast sched­ BRITISH BROADCASTING Aubrey Smger, said to me that he didn't ules. On the evening of November 3, In 1965, Isseis reopened the Ringberg want a film that would g1ve any fa lse 1970. some e1ght months after cancella­ Clin1c, and over the next three years he hopes . . . . I was absolutely astonished to tion of 1ts f1rst broadcast date. "Go Climb treated 1,545 pat1ents from 36 countries. find that Mr. Singer appeared to have a Mountain" was broadcast to some 14 They came. notwithstandmg that he re­ made up his mind beforehand what th1s million Brit1sh v1ewers. It created enor­ mained the object of false propaganda. f.!lm might or might not be about. " Two mous interest among the Bnt1sh public in In 1966, after havmg seen a BBC doc­ other top BBC execulives told him they Isseis and h1s method. And once agam, umentary, "Livmg with Death," about didn't want a film that would raise false Thomas recalls, " All hell broke loose." how a Brit1sh sociologist, Peter Newton hopes or " extend any undue cred1b1l1ty" Fenbow, was coping with terminal can­ to a man like Isseis. " I then sa1d , 'Have cer, Or. Isseis offered the courageous you read the Anderson report?' And sud­ THE ESTABLISHMENT GOES TO WAR man free treatment at R1ngberg. Within denly I had an uncomfortable sense that three months Fenbow showed a remark­ BBC was receiving advice I couldn't quite The article in the London Observer, the able improvement and spoke on German fathom. " forcing of the BBC's hand , the broadcast television about the remission of his can­ What Thomas soon discovered was of "Go Clim b a Mountain"-these were cer. Some time later Fenbow showed up that the BBC was being advised on Isseis matters that alarmed the British medical at the BBC. The producers of "Living with by a trio of cancer establishment experts: establishment. Some British cancer vic­ Death" were amazed by his appearance. Sir David Smithers, a well-known cancer tims were going to the Ringberg Clinic, Gordon Thomas, one of the producers, radiologist; Dr. Gordon Ham1l ton-Fairley and that trickle might some day become recounts: " I saw a remarkable change in of Royal Marsden Hospital, a big-time a flood. the man. The man I left dying ... was cancer special1st ; and Or. Robert J. Har­ The Brillsh Medical Assoc1at1on drafted now a vital, living man." Fenbow ex­ ris, another pillar of the cancer establish­ a resolution callmg for act1on aga1nst plained what Isseis did. "My first ques­ ment. Thomas found that they had what it claimed was the "advertisement" tion," says Thomas, " was 'Is he a real deprecated Isseis 1n an effort to pull the for Isseis's clinic 1n the BBC documen­ doctor or a miracle worker?' Because I rug from under the scheduled television tary. Other doctors from the Brit1sh medi­ cou ldn't believe, see1ng Fenbow, that he production. So Thomas and h1s asso­ cal establishment commenced cam­ was the same man." ciates resorted to making the film covert­ paigning against Isseis in Bnlish newspa­ Thomas decided to investigate Isseis, ly on the pretense that they were pers and magazines. Sir Ke1 th Joseph, and he approached Dr. John Anderson, engaged in another film project. " We put secretary for health and soc1al services, one of Britain's top cancer experts, be­ the film together, and BBC looked at it. noted that Isseis's methods and results cause he believed Anderson would give And the n, " Thomas said, " all hell broke had not been published so as to " enable him an objective analysis. Anderson, an loose.:· Thomas was told by Singer that it a Judgment to be given." At the same expert whom the BBC used on occasion could not be shown because it gave peo­ time, however, British medical journals for science programs, had impressive ple hope. Later it was privately scree ned were rejecting Isseis's scientific papers credentials: adviser to the World Health for " the other experts of the establish­ on his methods and results. Organization, professor of medicine at ment. They universally condemned the As might be expected, the film stimu­ Kings College Hospital, Rockefeller Re­ film as irresponsible." In an effort to de­ lated intense interest outside the medical search Fellow. Together they went to see fuse the opposition, Thomas and his as­ community as well. One viewer, the Isseis. sociates offered the three experts a free Olympic athlete Lillian Board, who had "Our first impression of Isseis, as he trip to Bavaria to look over the Ringberg terminal cancer and was dying, became showed us around h1s clinic in Bavaria. Clin1c themselves. "When I put the offer a cause cefl3bre in the Eu ropean media was that he is a very . .. dedicated man, " to Smithers, Harris, and Hamilton-Fa1rley, when she decided to go to Ringberg. Thomas recalls. After spendmg weeks they all came up with the same answer: Hundreds of reporters from throughout with Or. Isseis at the clin1c and exam1ning to even go near Isseis would be guilt by the world converged on Isseis's clin1c, his case records, Anderson, in a confi­ association-an astonishing attitude for and Lillian Board, who had no chance for dential report to the BBC, confirmed Is­ scientists.·' survival , d1ed 1n the full glare of the mass seis's remarkable resu lts. "I am of the Smithers and Hamilton-Fairley ex­ media. "The moment she died," Thomas considered opinion," Anderson wrote, pressed indignation in a letter to Michael recalls, " Smithers, Hamilton-Fairley, and " that this is a new approach to cancer Latham, coproducer of the documentary: Harris moved into action. They said Is­ treatment and appears to be a consider­ "First. the programme as presented was seis was a fraud and a charlatan." The able improvement on what is usually of­ tantamount to advertising a cure for can­ BBC producers were accused of being ir­ fered. Dr. Isseis is an able physician, a cer which had been pronounced incur­ responsible. and false accusations and . . . penetrating cl inician. . . . He is a able by 'orthodox' medicine. We have malicious stories about Isseis's back­ shrewd observer.. .. There can be no made inquiries from the Med1cal Defence ground and private life exploded over the doubt that he is genuine in what he does Union, and if anyone in this country, med­ front pages of Europe's tabloids. and the results he gets ... . My overall ically qualified or not, were to advertise a At that point the British government an­ impression is that the clinic is well or­ cure for cancer, this would, in fact, be il­ nounced that it would send a commission dered and fulfills the best clinical tradi­ legal under the Cancer Act. " to Bavaria to investigate Isseis. Smithers, tions .. .. " On the weight of this report, During the heated debate at the BBC Harris. and Hamilton-Fairley, who had the BBC mounted an exhaust1ve investi­ over whether to release the f1 lm for opposed the BBC production and had re­ gation of Isseis's work. The producers broadcast, considering the opposition of fused to go to Bavaria because they did not only scrutmized everything connect­ the medical establishment, Aubrey Sing­ not want to associate with a "quack," ed with the Rmgberg Clinic but also er sought to resolve the question by a fait were now the main members of the com­ tracked down Isseis's patients through- accompli. He seized the film, according mission. GOVERNMENTAL OPERATIONS the clinic. bination therapy is condemned as being In general, the commission found that the According to Thomas, the actual report of no objective benefit in the treatment of clinic was "excellently run." But the com­ was not written after but during the visit. cancer. mission refused to concede that Isseis Thomas relates that he had people ob­ Dr. Isseis is a member of the Bavarian serving the commission. and "it came was actually able to cause remission of Cancer Society, the German National Can­ tumors. "In our view all the evidence we back to us that they sat around the sec­ cer Society, and the Royal Medical Society ond night there, saying, 'Well, we've collected suggests that Dr. Isseis's main of Edinburgh in Scotland. Throughout ihe wrapped it all up; let's put the piece of treatment reg1men has no effect on tumor years, despite all the obstacles, he has paper together.' And in fact, they wrote growth. He aims to put each patient in the continued to publish scientific articles on the report the second night they were best possible condition to combat h1s diS­ his concept, method, and results in rep­ there." ease, wh1ch is adm1rable, but there 1s no utable sc1ent1f1c journals An upsurge of evidence from our exam1nallon of the pa­ The report's release was accompanied mterest in h1s approach has resulted m tients and the1r notes that 1t makes a s1g­ by a mass1ve propaganda effort against numerous invitations to address medical n1f1cant contnbut1on to the1r surv1val. We Isseis. The comm1ss1on's den1al that Is­ associations, 1ncludmg cancer congress­ searched for every possible 1nd1callon of seis's treatment had any effectiveness re­ es, in his own country and abroad. He tumor regression not due to cytotox1c sulted in the refusal of a number of has been invited to speak at the Royal drugs and found none that was convinc­ Insurance companies to pay the patients' Medical Society of Ed1nburgh, the Swed­ ing." In essence, it sa1d that Dr. Isseis. clinic bills. By 1973 Dr. Isseis was forced ish Medical Association for Biological has a good effect on people's psyches to close the Ringberg Clinic. Since then Medicine, at Oxford Univers1ty in England, but does not cure their cancers with his he has used the facilities of another clinic and at Sloan-Kettering in New York­ therapy. in Rottach-Egern as a treatment center citadels of the cancer establishments of for his patients. two continents. The commission's report concludes: But despite this upsurge, remnanis of But that did not dismay Dr. Isseis. Can­ "We are convinced that Dr. Isseis be­ the old guard in positions of power in lieves implicitly in the treatment he gives. cer patients still sought him out. He still these same medical establishments still We think he does a great deal to help employs the same basic concept and continue to regard him as a medical pari­ most of his patients. We sadly think, how­ therapy in his treatment. People with can­ ah. They resent the fact that the kind of ap­ cers still continue to climb the mountains ever, that he is misguided in h1s beliefs proach he pioneered is more and more and that the treatment peculiar to his clin­ towering over the new Ringberg Clinic beginning to surface in vanous parts of ic is ineffective." and continue to improve under Isseis's the Western world, and that there are the care. The commission's skepticism centered discernible beginnings of a new climate in about the diagnoses made by other insti­ Perhaps the most important thing to re­ the medical world. tutions before the patients arrived at member is that Isseis has a higher rate of But even the American Cancer Society Ringberg. The report proposes that this cure than anyone else in patients who are IS beginning to realize that there are things was "the main source of confusion about beyond conventional help. Remarkably, beyond surgery, radiation, and chemo­ the success claimed by the clinic"; Isseis though, he continues to be blacklisted by therapy that are effective in the treatment never cured cancer, because none of his the American Cancer Society; but what of cancer. That realization is due to the cured patients ever had cancer. They makes his presence on the Unproven pressure of people asking why we are merely suffered from "gross overirradia­ Methods List so invidious is that he does losing the war against cancer. What hap­ tion" or had already been "cured by sur­ not meet any of the criteria to have been pened to Dr. Isseis pointedly answers gery and irradiation" before arriving at blacklisted in the first place. Isseis's com- that question.Of--m