Hoxsey Therapy

Hoxsey Therapy is a alternative medical treatment promoted as a cure for cancer. Also known as the Hoxsey Method, it is primarily practiced by the Bio-Medical Center in Tijuana, Mexico. The American Cancer Society has stated that "...There is no evidence that the Hoxsey herbal treatment has any value in the treatment of cancer in humans."^[1]

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History

  The Hoxsey Therapy, a mixture of herbs, was first marketed as a purported cure for cancer in the 1920's by Harry Hoxsey, a vaudevillian with no medical or scientific education, and Norman Baker, a radio personality. Hoxsey himself traced the treatment to his great-grandfather, who observed a horse with a tumor on its leg cure itself by grazing upon wild plants growing in the meadow. John Hoxsey gathered these herbs and mixed them with old home remedies used for cancer.^[2][3]

Harry opened a clinic in Taylorville, Illinois for the sale and use of his treatment, one of 17 that he would eventually open. Dogged in many states by legal trouble for practicing medicine without a license, Hoxsey frequently shut down and reopened the clinics in new locations. At one point, he claimed thousands were treated with his therapy.

In 1936, Hoxsey opened a clinic in Dallas, Texas which became one of the largest privately owned cancer centers in the world. In 1949, Hoxsey sued the Journal of the American Medical Association and its editors for libel and slander after the journal called him a fraud. Hoxsey won the case, but the judge awarded him only $1.

The United States Food and Drug Administration banned the sale of the Hoxsey herbal treatment in 1960. Hoxsey was also forced to close all of his U.S. clinics. In 1963, one of Hoxsey’s nurses set up a clinic in Tijuana, Mexico. Just before her death in 1999, the clinic was taken over by her sister and still operates today.

In 1967, Hoxsey developed prostate cancer, and his own treatment failed to cure it. Because he failed to respond to his eponymous therapy, Hoxsey underwent surgery and standard medical treatment.^[4] He died seven years later, in 1974.

Treatment

Hoxsey herbal treatment includes a paste of antimony, zinc and bloodroot, arsenic, sulfur, and talc as external treatments, and a liquid mixture of licorice, red clover, burdock root, Stillingia root, barberry, Cascara, prickly ash bark, buckthorn bark, and potassium iodide for internal consumption.^[5]

In addition to the herbs, the Hoxsey treatment now also includes antiseptic douches and washes, laxative tablets, and nutritional supplements. A mixture of procaine hydrochloride and vitamins, along with liver and cactus, is prescribed.

During treatment, patients are asked to avoid consumption of tomatoes, vinegar, pork, alcohol, salt, sugar, and white flour products.^[2]

Side-effects

• The topical paste is highly caustic, and can burn or scar the skin.
• The oral treatment can cause:

• nausea
• vomiting
• diarrhea
• anxiety
• trembling
• abdominal cramps
• heart block

• Pokeweed has caused deaths in children.
• Red clover may increase the risk of bleeding for people who take anticoagulants. It also mimics the behavior of the hormone estrogen, and thus is unsuitable for women with estrogen-responsive breast tumors.

Effectiveness

Very little or no peer-reviewed research has been published on any claims of benefit from the Hoxsey Therapy.^[4] Records from the Bio-Medical Center claim that the success rate of treatment is around 80%, though independent audits have failed to confirm this number^{[citation needed]}. Several independently published, non-peer-reviewed books have claimed that some of the herbs in the therapy have anti-tumor effects in vitro.^[6][7]

The American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute do not advise the use of the Hoxsey Therapy, as neither have found any objective evidence that the treatment provides tangible benefit to people with cancer. A controlled experiment in lab mice did not find any difference in tumor growth between untreated mice and those given the Hoxsey tonic.^[8] The Food and Drug Administration investigated 400 people claiming to have been cured by the Hoxsey method, and found no indication that any had been cured by the mixture.^[3]

Notable cases

The treatment gained wide press coverage in 2006 due to a court dispute between the family of Starchild Abraham Cherrix and Social Services of the State of Virginia. Cherrix has requested to undergo Hoxsey Therapy to treat a recurrence of Hodgkin disease. Because at the age of 16 he was still a minor, Social Services considered the parents to be negligent and sought to have Cherrix undergo conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy. On August 16 2006, Circuit Judge Glen A. Tyler announced that both sides had reached an agreement that the parents did not act in a way that was medically neglectful. In addition, it stipulated that Starchild would be treated by an oncologist of his choice who was both board-certified in radiation therapy as well as interested in alternative methods to treat Hodgkin disease.^[9]

References

Scientific reviews

• American Cancer Society: Hoxsey Herbal Treatment
• British Columbia Cancer Agency: Hoxsey's Herbal Tonic