Burzynski and the Irish Times

I have just sent the following email to newsdesk@irishtimes.com


To Whom it May Concern,

I'm writing in relation to your article, which I found here: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0714/1224320064507.html entitled "Appeal for ill child to travel to US for pioneering treatment".

You state in the article that the clinic 'provides advanced alternative cancer treatments'.  You refer to it in the title and elsewhere in the article as 'pioneering treatment'.  This 'treatment' has been in clinical trials since 1984, and there is, as yet, no evidence that it is a useful treatment of any illness.  In a 2004 paper 'Alternative Cancer Cures: “Unproven” or “Disproven”?' Dr. Andrew Vickers PhD describes it as disproven.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved these products for the treatment of any disease. 

I understand the desire to find hope in a case like this.  But the Burzynski Clinic (which you have also, incidentally, misspelled in the article) does nothing more than sell people that hope, for vast sums of money, with nothing of any substance behind it.

Regards,
<My real name>




I will update this post with a reply, if I get one.

For more on Burzynski , I recommend following zenbuffy at her blog and/or on twitter @zenbuffy.


<EDITED TO ADD:> 

No reply, but the article has been taken down.  Screenshot available here, if you're curious.  Wouldn't it be nice if they put a short apology, or explanation, in place of the original though?