Complaint filed against Texas physician over treatment tried at local clinic

July 30--ROCHESTER -- The Texas Medical Board has filed a 200-page complaint against Stanislaw Burzynski, the Houston doctor whose controversial antineoplaston therapy is being used to treat a Hudson girl with an inoperable brain tumor.

McKenzkie Lowe, 12, started receiving the therapy five weeks ago at Dr. Terry Bennett'sQuick Care Clinic in Rochester, after a long and public battle fought by the girl and her family to convince the FDA -- which banned the therapy in 2012 after the death of a patient -- to allow for its use.

The family believes the therapy can work.

The complaint, filed earlier this month, states that Burzynski, who has been operating the Burzynski Clinic in Houston for more than 30 years, "created a medical practice model based on marketing his proprietary anti-cancer drugs to patients without adequate measures for patient safety and therapeutic value."

The Burzynski clinic, which has been in operation for nearly 40 years, is the only known place to receive antineoplaston therapy.

Burzynski invented the therapy in the 1960s. It is a mixture of amino acid derivatives, peptides, and amino acids found in human blood and urine, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Antineoplaston therapy has never gained FDA approval.

The doctor's critics claim that he is an opportunistic charlatan, while his supporters claim he is a hero being silenced by a cynical establishment.

McKenzie was diagnosed in November 2012, with a highly aggressive and inoperable brain stem tumor called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). Patients with DIPG typically survive less than a year.

Lowe's family is currently trying to raise tens of thousands of dollars to pay Burzynski for the therapy, which insurance companies will not cover.

The 200-page Texas complaint claims Burzynski misled patients into paying exorbitant charges, misrepresented unlicensed people as licensed medical doctors, and misrepresented health care providers as cancer experts.

In the complaint the Texas Medical Board reviewed the medical care of seven of Burzynski's patient.

The complaint comes just weeks after the FDA officially lifted the partial clinical hold on using the therapy treatment that it placed on the clinic in 2012.

The lifting of the partial clinical hold in June was rebuked by The Center for Inquiry, a nonprofit advocacy organization, in a July press release. The center said it was "stunned to hear" the FDA lifted the partial clinical hold.

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