Is the American Cancer Society more interested in cancer profit than cancer prevention? - page 2
So it is in fact true that the ACS' 22-member board was created in 1990 to solicit corporate contributions. It's also true that board members include Gordon Binder, who is the CEO of Amgen, a biotechnology company that sells chemotherapy products. Another board member, David R. Bethune, is president of Lederle Laboratories, a multinational pharmaceutical company and a division of American Cyanamid Company. In fact, many board members seemingly stand to make more money by treating cancer than preventing it.
But as Thun said, these relationships are "pragmatic" ways to garner funding. Money, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, is the name of the ACS' game. The Chronicle of Philanthropy is a watchdog organization that monitors major charities. After analyzing the ACS' budgets and programs, they concluded the agency is "more interested in accumulating wealth than saving lives."
Epstein argues that the ACS's financial ties with industry also skew its policies pertaining to environmental causes of cancer. In his new book, Cancer-Gate: How to Win the Losing War Against Cancer, Epstein claims the agency is willfully suppressing information about the environmental causes of cancer. Carcinogens can be found in pesticides, industrial pollution, materials used in plastic or reconstructive surgery, the water supply and many other everyday materials.
Corporations – some of which contribute to the American Cancer Society – profit handsomely while they pollute the air, water, and food with a wide range of carcinogens, endangering the lives of millions of people. Why is the ACS silent? Epstein says they are more interested in inflating their budget than waging war against industrial pollution.
See the video: We've made available a short segment (3 minutes) from a must-see DVD called The Corporation, in which Dr. Epstein explains much more about the American Cancer Society and the cancer establishment in general. It's a large download (37MB), and it's a Windows .avi file format, compressed in a .zip archive. To download it, right-click here, then save the file to your computer. Once the download is complete, double-click the file on your computer to view it.
Full credit for this video belongs to The Corporation film, which is strongly recommended. This short segment from the supplementary interviews is used under Fair Use as a commentary on the film and the cancer industry. Special thanks to Dr. Epstein for his courage and dedication in standing up to the cancer industry.
Preventing Smoking: The ACS' unidirectional attack
After heavy criticism in the 1980s, the American Cancer Society did step up some of its preventative measures. To date, the ACS' anti-smoking campaign is the most effective action ever taken by the agency. With states like New York prohibiting smoking in all businesses – bars and restaurants included – and a decrease in adult and adolescent smoking, the fight against Big Tobacco appears to be paying off. Even in this case, however, the American Cancer Society nevertheless stands to gain in some fashion from its unidirectional preventative action against smoking.
In the past few years the ACS has taken corporate "sponsorship" money. Here's how it works: Sponsors pay the ACS to have the society's logo donned on certain products. SmithKline Beecham, producer of NicoDerm CQ and Nicorette anti-smoking aids, paid the ACS $1 million for the right to use the American Cancer Society name.
But does taking money from these companies decrease the number of cancer fatalities caused by smoking? Given the already exorbitant price of anti-smoking aids in addition to the amount Beecham pays for the rights to the ACS logo, few smokers (who are statically lower-income) are enticed to quit smoking. These sponsorships also create an even more startling question: Does the ACS endorse these products? The American Cancer Society says no, claiming that the use of their logo represents a "partnership," although representatives of the ACS seem slow to articulate just what a partnership is. No extra ACS money goes into research for these products, nor are Beecham's products part of a long-term anti-smoking initiative.
Conservative Medicine: The ACS' Committee on Unproven Methods of Cancer Management
Many alternative health doctors and providers charge the American Cancer Society with blackballing effective, albeit non-traditional, treatments. Critics claim the ACS attacks non-patentable, natural treatments in an effort to protect the interests of pharmaceutical companies. The main target of criticism: The ACS' controversial "Committee on Unproven Methods of Cancer Management." This Committee reviews unorthodox or alternative therapies, putting many of these treatments on the "Unproven Methods" list. Appearing on this list can mean literal ruin to any health practitioner. Dr. Stanislaw R. Burzynski, M.D., Ph.D., felt the full weight of just such an appearance. He was refused research money and raided by the FDA, which seized 200,000 documents from his clinic. But Dr. Burzynski stands by his method of treating cancer with antineoplastons, treating hundreds of patients a year with a relatively high success rate.
In Alternative Medicine, Burton Goldberg claims many of the treatments on the "Unproven Methods" list have never been demonstrated ineffective or dangerous. In fact, Goldberg states, "[These treatments] may not have been subjected to any tests at all -- neither by the American Cancer Society nor by any other agency, public or private. They merely seem ineffective in the light of prevailing theories of cancer etiology and therapy." Unfortunately, any practitioner assigned to this list is automatically considered a dangerous quack. Funding usually vanishes and the treatment fails before it has even undergone rigorous testing.
In fact, more than 100 promising alternative non-patented and nontoxic therapies have already been identified and discredited by the American Cancer Society in this way. Included among these are Tumor Necrosis Factor (originally called Coleys' Toxin), hydrazine sulfate, laetrile, Gersons therapy and Burzynski's antineoplastons. Practitioners, activists and cancer survivors are likening the "Unproven Methods" tactic to witch hunts that unfairly target natural therapies over toxic chemical therapies. Many have even called for a boycott of the ACS.
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