Frank: The web address is very simple, it's cancercontrolsociety.com.
Mike: There’s a very unique combination of products, services and information you offer here. Can you give people the big picture of why they should check out the Cancer Control Society?
Frank: The main reason I believe they should is because I believe we have information concerning cancer and other general diseases – which includes cram materials, books, videotapes, audiotapes as well as other resources for clinics, physicians and therapies – that people have a hard time finding in other places. We have it all pretty much in one location. We have an annual convention on Labor Day weekend in the Los Angeles area. The one this year will be our 33rd.
It’s a three-day convention. We have lectures approximately every 30 minutes with some breaks for lunch as well as to visit the exhibitors. People have told us our convention is one of the best they ever attended. That includes both the lay population – people who come to get the information – as well as physicians who come, either to speak or to catch up with the latest in alternative therapies.
Mike: Are most of the people dealing with cancer themselves; that's how they find you? Or are they just curious to prevent it?
Frank: Some of both. The people who go actively looking on the website and call for information; the majority of those have either cancer or someone in the family (with cancer), but we now have quite a following of people who come to us for the latest information, the newest book or the latest expert or speaker on one topic or another.
Mike: Now, we've covered books by Sam Epstein before, and I've interviewed Ralph Moss, and you know, Dr. Moss isn't exactly an alternative medicine proponent. Why is it that the cancer industry seems to really dislike alternative information getting out about cancer? Why do you think that exists, and how does your organization help provide more education?
Frank: Well, the primary reason it exists is because the politics of cancer are far more complicated than the science. Twenty-five years ago, actually about 30 years ago, G. Edward Griffin wrote a book called "World Without Cancer."
Mike: I'm familiar with that book.
Frank: Part one is the science of cancer and also talks about vitamin B17, and the second half of that book, which is vitally important, is about the politics of cancer. It goes into all the international cartels – chemical, petrochemical and pharmaceutical, which is mostly petrochemical – that have carved up the world into areas or spheres of influence. Those people are granted monopolies, or they, and their friends, are granted monopolies in certain areas for certain diseases and certain products. These people work very closely with the government; the respective governments in these countries. Therefore, they have a vested interest in not allowing anything outside the purview or the scope of that cartel.
Mike: So, for example – to back that up for those reading – here in the United States we see the FDA confiscating the importation of prescription drugs from other countries to protect the Big Pharma. We see them trying to get legislation to ban drugs from Canada and attacking online pharmacies, but then also discrediting any medicinal herbs like ma huang or Ephedra.
Frank: Ephedra – which maybe killed a person or two, maybe it didn't – really begs the (previous) question. Because, I believe the third- or fourth-leading cause of death in the United States today is properly prescribed drugs. In other words: Hospitals and doctors prescribing drugs, so called "ethical drugs," the way the pharmaceutical companies tell them to, are the third or fourth largest killer of patients in the US today. Laetrile has never killed anybody directly, certainly not (when) used as it's intended, and the margin of safety with herbs and vitamins is so tremendous, there's really no discussion.
I was at a professional conference a few months ago where an associate professor of medicine at UCLA was talking about herbs for cancer. One of her comments that really struck me was she said, "You know, with herbs there's such a wide margin of safety that I really recommend that all physicians should integrate herbs with their medical practice."
Mike: That's quite a statement coming from an MD.
Frank: Yes it is.
Mike: Now, it's also interesting to note that people who have good information – either because they've been reading your website or some of the books you offer for sale – have access to substances such as apricot seeds, for example, which are not labeled as medicinal, yet they have a very powerful medicinal effect nonetheless. So, it's information that is the key to empowering individuals.
Frank: That is correct. Particularly when you mentioned apricot seeds – historically, the seeds of fruits have been part of the food chain, and in those areas where a wide variety of foods (natural and raw) are consumed, we see lower levels of disease. That certainly goes with cancer. Those areas that consume foods very rich in vitamin B17 or the nitriloside factor get very little cancer.
Mike: Simple cause and effect, isn't it?
Frank: It certainly looks very simple, and there is a direct correlation.
Mike: What resources can people find on your website? What's for sale and what's free?
Frank: Well, we sell books, videotapes and audiotapes. We do have some packets we ask a donation for, but we have free literature. For instance, we have a list of doctors and clinics, both in the United States and around the world. A large number, of course, are in Mexico in the Tijuana area, because it's close to the US border. We have a list of patients who are either successfully recovered from cancer utilizing one or more alternative therapies, or are in the process of recovering and have agreed to leave their name, address and phone number so other patients can call them.
Mike: That's wonderful.
Frank: Here at the Natural Products Expo we have what we call the “white sheet,” and that contains a list of all the patients. The “green sheet” is the list of doctors and clinics and hospitals around the world, and there's no charge for that. Most of those are available, of course, on the website.
Mike: Well, I think it's very courageous on their part to allow themselves to be listed, given the environment of oppression that exists in the cancer industry today. Are there any U.S. doctors on the list receiving complaints from other doctors or anything like that?
Frank: We have a number of doctors in the U.S. Offhand, I don't know of any complaints.
Mike: I shouldn't say complaints. I mean pressure from the FDA and their colleagues saying you shouldn't be trying to cure cancer with anything other than chemotherapy and radiation. You know how that goes.
Frank: Yes, I understand that. Most of the doctors on our list are operating legally and they will do as much as they believe they can do without jeopardizing their medical license. It's in some states more than in other states. In California, I think there's a greater fear of the regulatory establishment, just, you know, historically. The state of California has come down very hard on doctors who put the patients' welfare first and their own welfare second, and work with the patient on a wide variety of things that maybe aren't approved, but certainly are safe.
Mike: In various articles, I've often stated I believe cancer is almost universally preventable with nutrition and medicinal herbs and other therapies. In the vast majority of cases it is reversible if detected in the early stages. I'm just curious, is that a statement you agree with or disagree with, or what are your thoughts on that?
Frank: Well, I certainly would agree with it. However, in the approximately 30 years I've been involved with the Cancer Control Society and alternative cancer therapies, I've seen a number of late-stage cancers that have responded to one or more alternative therapies, and some of these people are still alive today. One thing I believe we offer that conventional oncology does not offer is at least a ray of hope in otherwise hopeless cases.
When I use the word "hope," I'm not talking about a false hope that we're accused of giving. Something else is that I've never used the word "cure" for cancer or other diseases, because I think that's a legal term, not a scientific term. It's a legal term the medical establishment uses against people like us, hoping they can use it and say we're outside the law. So, we don't use it. That's why we're the Cancer Control Society, because we believe other diseases can be controlled, but at any given time, you or I, or someone in our family may have a cancer that's developing, and if we get the right nutrition, the proper elimination, air, water, those things – the body will cope with it and it may disappear, but it’s the kind of thing that comes and goes. It's the same if I don't get enough water. I get dehydrated and I tend to get a headache. If I drink enough water, then the headache goes away. I cure my headache.
Mike: I see what you mean.
Frank: What caused the headache? The headache was merely telling me, "Hey, there's something wrong and you need to address it."
Mike: Right, that makes perfect sense. That's actually very helpful to me, because a person can eliminate all symptoms of cancer and be declared "cancer free," or in remission of cancer by a Western doctor, but then they go back to an unhealthy lifestyle and they expose themselves to dietary and environmental toxins, and they can have a recurrence of that cancer.
Frank: And in most cases, will. Another interesting thing we don't hear a lot about in these circles are HIV-type diseases, but many of the HIV-type diseases or related conditions will respond to one or more alternative therapies. As long as the patient maintains the healthy lifestyle, he can control that disease, and it won't interfere with his state of life. We've seen a number of cases with the disease totally under control and the person is back to work and back to living a normal life.
Mike: I see. That’s very interesting. Isn't it also the case that the time at which many cancer patients ultimately choose to turn to alternative therapies is when the traditional therapies have given up on them? When the doctor says, "We can't help you any more."
Frank: After numerous rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, everything's been cut that can be cut. The doctor says, "Well, there's nothing else we can do." Yes, that is an excellent point. Still, I would say the majority of patients who turn to alternative therapies come from that scenario.
Mike: I think that's really sad, because their chances of survival are so decreased at that point.
Frank: The immune system and the vital organs have been ravaged by chemotherapy and radiation, and one thing we would certainly offer is to cooperate with conventional oncology in providing information on some of the things where we have information they could use. They could integrate with their chemotherapy, they could integrate with their radiation, and the patient would be so much better. First of all, in some cases it only mitigates the negative side effects. In some cases, it prevents the negative side effects. So, we're not declaring war on conventional oncology, but we would like a little bit more reciprocity when it comes to working together with cooperation and sharing information. We're very happy to work with conventional medicine in providing alternatives that will help them better treat and better serve their patients.
Mike: Well, I admire that position on your part. I wish I were so integrated in my approach. I always say, “Look, you need to make a choice: Either you're going to go down the road and you're going to have your immune system destroyed by chemotherapy, or you can boost your immune system through all these other methods, but you have to make a choice, because you can't reverse chemotherapy.” But that's just my opinion.
Frank: Well, it's very difficult to reverse, in most cases, what chemotherapy does. However, what alternative therapies will do – and among those I include antioxidants and vitamin C – is protect healthy cells in the body so that now, when the patient receives chemotherapy and/or radiation, the healthy cells are protected, and antioxidants do not protect malignant cells.
Mike: That's a very good point.
Frank: It's just because of the physiological make-up of cancer cells as opposed to normal cells, receptor sites and availability. Chemotherapy radiation will attack cancer cells first if the healthy cells are full of antioxidants, full of vitamin C and full of things like that. Then there's no room for the chemotherapy to get in.
Mike: Very interesting.
Frank: And we see that more and more. I attend probably six professional conferences a year aimed at physicians and one or more alternative therapies are promoted. The doctors there say these things work in these cases, if you have certain situations. I still run into even alternative doctors who like a little bit of chemotherapy or will use limited amounts of radiation. Before they do that, they give the patient things that will boost the healthy cells. Then, when they get through with whatever the conventional modality is, they do things that detoxify from the negative effects. I personally wouldn't do that first, but there are so many people who are so tied into insurance, so tied into a medical plan or they have this mental construct that will not allow them to go against what the doctor says. We encourage the doctor to include some of these things with what they're doing.
Mike: I love that philosophy. It's actually more helpful than just saying, "Traditional oncology is wrong." Being integrative works. It reminds me of doing some research on chlorella. I remember a study showing patients who were about to undergo chemotherapy; if they took chlorella, I think 10g throughout the day, their 5-year survival rate increased by 40 percent.
Frank: I don't doubt it at all.
Mike: So, that's a good point. It protects the healthy cells.
Frank: One of the arguments we've heard from conventional oncology is, "Oh, don't take antioxidants because that will protect the cancer cell and it'll make the radiation or chemotherapy ineffective." In talking with doctors from NCI and other MDs – well-qualified and well-credentialed – we learned, of course, that's not true and this misconception was based on one study that was improperly designed and improperly carried out, where the conclusion was inconclusive. There was no definite conclusion. One physician operating with that test said, "Therefore, don't use antioxidants." There have been approximately 50,000 patients who have tried antioxidants and conventional therapy, and in every single case they did better when taking the antioxidants, and it had no effect whatsoever on the killing power of the chemotherapy or radiation on the cancer cells. That's been well documented. I know Charles Simone (who used to be with the National Cancer Institute), who wrote a book last year. It is an outstanding book, and he analyzed all those studies, and pointed out that the statement: “Oh no, we can't do that because it interferes with the therapy” is absolutely not true, and here we have all the studies to show that patients do better.
Mike: So do you have an annual membership?
Frank: We have a basic membership category, $25 a year. We survive on people who certainly give more than $25. Actually, we're a group of volunteers. As vice president, I'm not paid, and I don't expect to be. I do this because I want to help other people. When my mother died of cancer in 1973, which was about the first year, I think, when the Cancer Control Society was founded, it was very, very difficult to find information anywhere about alternative therapies. So, after my mother died and I got involved with this, I said I would certainly dedicate some of my time to helping other people get the information.
Mike: Quite a bit of your time. Certainly for this show, this is an intense, rather exhausting time, or can be.
Frank: Yes, yes it is.
Mike: One last question, if that's Okay. If there's someone out there who's reading this, and they've just been diagnosed with cancer, or a family member has just been diagnosed, what do you think are the first steps they should take? Is it to educate themselves? How should they do that? What should they do?
Frank: A couple of things. First, you can go to cancercontrolsociety.com. Look at the website, look at the information we have and look at some of the speakers we have at various conventions. We also have links to their websites if they have them. We have the patient list and we have the doctor list. The other is, call Lorraine Rosenthal at CCS headquarters in Los Angeles, (323)663-7801, and ask for a packet of information. Come on one of our tours of the Tijuana clinics. If somebody has the time to do that, throughout the year we have organized tours. We leave Los Angeles on a tour bus and we visit six of the clinics, give people an overview and we also give them quite a bit of printed information to help them make a decision. Then, if they have questions beyond that, they should feel free to call one of us and we'll help go through the literature, go through the process and help them make a decision.
Mike: About those clinics: Sometimes there's a perception in the minds of people who are only paying attention to the mainstream press that these are back-country, low-tech, dirty clinics, and that's not the case at all. Can you describe what these clinics are like?
Frank: Right now in the Tijuana area, there are approximately 20 alternative therapy facilities. Some of them are very modern concrete and glass buildings. There are some operating in converted or renovated houses, but certainly clean, and to the degree they want to be technically advanced, they have machines to do that. Some of the same high-speed CAT scan machines that are available in the United States. In some cases, the clinic may refer a specialized test to one of the facilities in California, where they have a very good working relationship to cooperate together. Most of them are clean, neat and staffed with credentialed physicians, nurses and people who really care about the patients. So, we'd certainly invite anyone to come join us.
Mike: Just so people know, there is no law against people traveling anywhere they want to seek whatever medical care they choose, correct?
Frank: Right now that's true. As long as we can keep it that way, we'll certainly keep doing what we're doing.
Mike: I've been covering medical tourism recently, which is a huge oncoming topic. For some reason people are going all over the world (the Philippines, Thailand and Korea) to have knee replacement, hip replacement and heart bypass surgeries. It used to be the world would come to the United States for healthcare, but now people are going elsewhere.
Frank: Yes, they are, and they're finding fully-qualified, fully-credentialed medical personnel wherever they go.
Mike: Well, thank you very much for your time today Frank, it's been a real pleasure.
Frank: It's been my pleasure, thank you.
Mike: Again, it's the Cancer Control Society - cancercontrolsociety.com. That's where you can find more information and action steps on what you can do if you've been diagnosed, or someone you know and love has been diagnosed with cancer. So, inform yourself, give yourself information and take charge of your health outcome through that strategy.