Nicholas Gonzalez Treatment for Cancer: Gland Extracts, Coffee Enemas, Vitamin Megadoses, and Diets
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Nicholas Gonzalez Treatment for Cancer: Gland Extracts, Coffee Enemas, Vitamin Megadoses, and Diets Saul Green, Ph.D. Nicholas Gonzalez, MD, has developed a treatment for cancer that is a duplication of one devised by William Donald Kelley, a dentist from Grapevine, Texas [1,2]. Gonzalez heard about Kelley's methods from a friend, and during his second year in medical school, he visited Kelley in Texas [3]. Gonzalez learned the details of Kelley's cancer treatments by reading patients' charts in which were recorded diagnoses, treatment regimens, and various anecdotes. Gonzalez continued his observations intermittently for five more years, wrote up his findings, but did not publish them. The Kelley Treatment The Kelley treatment, as outlined in his Newsletter on Cancer Remedies [4], is based on a belief in a relationship between diet and "detoxification" with coffee enemas as outlined by Max Gerson, MD [5,6]. According to Kelley, all cancers are one disease caused by a deficiency of protein digestive enzymes, which allows cancer cells to grow. Kelley explained that because this cause of cancer is so clear and simple, it is ignored by the medical establishment [7]. He offered this explanation: The direct cause of cancer according to our research, is the changing of an ectopic germ cell into an ectopic trophoblast cell. An excess of female hormones brings about this change. Both men and women have sex hormones and when the delicate male- female sex hormone balance is upset, a cancer starts. Thus cancer is the growth of normal tissue, i.e. basic germ cells, in the wrong place. Cancer progresses because there is lack of cancer-digesting enzymes in the body. The solution is to get pancreatic enzymes to the place where cancer is growing, in a concentration high enough to stop growth, but not so high as to cause too rapid production of "toxins" from tumor breakdown. This theory is also similar to that of Scottish anatomist, John Beard, as recorded in The Enzyme Treatment of Cancer and Its Scientific Basis (London: Chatto and Windus, 1911). It was also followed by Ernst Krebs Jr., developer of Laetrile. To diagnose and monitor the effectiveness of his treatment, Kelley invented the "Kelley Malignancy Index," "the most accurate and extensive cancer detection system ever developed." The test is a questionnaire filled out by the patient. When completed, it is supposed to identify the presence and location of cancer, the cancer activity (growth), and to indicate the treatment based on the patient's "metabolic classification as a sympathetic dominant, a parasympathetic dominant, or a balanced metabolizer." Kelley warned that while halting the growth of cancer is relatively simple, only those who followed his treatment program for the rest of their lives would benefit because the body must be continuously cleared of toxins. Patients were warned to continue the treatment until their Kelley Malignancy Index test scores dropped to zero "K-units" and to repeat the test every six months [1,9,10] The Kelley treatment was divided into five parts: 1. Nutritional therapy: Tablets and capsules of coenzymes, megavitamins, minerals, high-dose vitamin C, bioflavonoids, rutin, a compound of "organic" and trace minerals, raw almonds, an amino acid-lipoid compound, and a formulation of concentrated beef pancreatic enzymes. 2. Detoxification: Since the proposed cause of death from cancer was from toxins in waste products given off by tumor tissue, they must be eliminated by laxative purging with epsom salts, fasts, and enemas with coffee, fermented milk, or lemon juice. Successful detoxification was said to take three weeks to twelve months. 3. Diet: Kelley initially proposed a strict vegetarian diet, but later advocated that diet must be tailored to each patient's need. He developed ten basic diets with 95 variations. These ranged from pure vegetarian to exclusively meat. The diets forbade processed foods, pesticide residues, milk, soy beans, peanuts, food concentrates, white sugar, and white rice. It allowed almonds, low protein grains and nuts, yogurt, "organic" raw vegetable and fruit juices, salads, and whole grain cereals. 4. Neurological stimulation: Osteopathic, chiropractic, physiotherapeutic manipulation, or manual "reshaping" of the skull (mandibular manipulation). 5. Spiritual: Kelley urged patients to pray and seek the truth through the word of God in the Bible [10]. At the end of his unpublished report on the Kelley treatment, Gonzalez concluded, "A study such as mine cannot, of course, prove conclusively that Kelley's treatment cures cancer, since the patients that were evaluated were not treated under controlled conditions. Nevertheless, significant number of patients with appropriately diagnosed terminal cancer enjoyed impressive regressions of the disease while on the Kelley regimen. This finding alone warrants a full, fair, and unbiased investigation of Kelley's methods." [11] Obviously, Gonzalez at the time was aware of the sort of evidence needed to make Kelley's claims credible. The Gonzalez Treatment Gonzalez's cancer treatment resembles Kelley's with some exceptions. Gonzalez dispensed with the neurological and spiritual components. He uses hair analysis instead of a questionnaire to monitor progress. As with Kelley, Gonzalez insists that a cancer can be eliminated "by the patient's own body" if the liver, intestines, kidneys, lungs, and blood are detoxified and the body's acid/alkaline balance as well as its mineral and enzyme equilibria are brought into balance. To accomplish this, Gonzalez treats with coffee enemas and supplements of megavitamins, trace minerals, glandular extracts, and diet [12]. Coffee enemas. According to Gonzalez, tumors are collections of abnormal cells, so when therapy causes cell breakdown (necrosis), abnormal molecules of tumor waste are released into the blood. They are filtered and detoxified by the liver. They are excreted through the bile ducts from the liver to the small intestine. The walls of the bile ducts are composed of smooth muscle that caffeine in coffee causes to relax, allowing ducts to "open wide," allowing tumor toxins to pass into the small bowel [12]. Supplements. Patients may take as many as 150 pills per day of the above supplements in order to replace the nutrients lost during detoxification. Diet. The patient submits samples of scalp hair for analysis performed by a company in Louisiana. From hair analysis Gonzalez determines the patients' "nutritional, mineral, and biochemical patterns and clinical status." A "hair analysis CT test score" determines the specifics of the diet. Diets consist of "all-natural poison-free food" to prevent new tissue intoxication and to reestablish the body's balance. Discussion The Kelley and Gonzalez rationales for cancer treatment are largely speculative and invalid. A review of all material published by Kelley and Gonzalez shows neither to have had training in oncology or board certification in any medical specialty or to have performed or published experimental work verifying their conclusions about the cause of cancer or about their treatment. The theory of cancer causation as a deficit of pancreatic enzymes resulting in growth of trophoblast is speculation from turn-of-the-century (1911) ideas; it conflicts with established facts about cancer causation and etiology confirmed by research done over the past 50 years. Different cancers do not have identical causes, growth characteristics, or responses to treatments. Monitoring of treatment progress is done through proved methods for evaluating effectiveness. Self-assessment questionnaires are of limited value in evaluating progress of cancer or its treatment. Hair analysis yields tittle to no valid information about nutritional status. Hair analysis. When questioned about the hair analysis he uses to evaluate and prescribe, Gonzalez described the process as a "CT rate" sent back to him from the Louisiana laboratory [13]. He claimed that the machine, invented in England in the 1940s, measures biochemical factors in hair and provides biochemical and nutritional patterns. The instrument also measures "waste products" (not specified) and certain proteins and tumor antigens. On questioning, Gonzalez could not identify these materials, did not know how the analysis was done, did not know the validity of the results or how the conclusions were drawn. He stated that the results were correct because they agreed with his preconceived diagnosis [13]. In 1983, Rivlin reviewed the published scientific literature on the uses and misuses of hair analysis in making nutritional assessments [14]. Among the numerous variables found to influence results were age, sex, rate of hair growth, sweat contamination, environmental contamination, shampoos, bleaches, dyes, and the location from which the sample was taken. Rivlin found so many uncontrollable variables that conclusions from a single sample could not be of value for evaluating nutritional status or in making therapeutic recommendations. Coffee enemas. Enemas were standard practice of fifth-century C.E. "medicine men" who believed blood letting and purging rid the body of "corrupt humors" [15] Kelley/Gonzalez use of laxatives and enemas seems to endorse this ancient concept when they state that poisoning occurs when people eat "processed foods" and that an "unpoisoned body" can recognize and destroy cancer. Gonzalez introduces another invalid concept in stating that the "poisoning" damages the body's ability to use oxygen for aerobic metabolism and forces the