The role of your cancer health professional is to create an environment of openness and trust, and to help in making informed decisions about alternative/complementary therapies. Collaboration will improve the safe integration of all therapies during your experience with cancer. The "Summary" and "Professional Evaluation/ Critique" sections of this Unconventional Therapies manual are cited directly from the medical literature, and are intended to help in the objective evaluation of alternative/complementary therapies.
Summary
There is no evidence supporting the claim that Chacon Cancer Cure is an effective treatment for cancer.
History
Fernando Chacon Mejias of Cordoba, Spain, is the founder of the Chacon Cancer Society and reports to be working to provide solutions to the problems of cancer, rheumatoid arthropathies, non-bacterial rheumatic fever, Parkinson's disease, and an extensive range of diseases of unknown etiology. (Mejias)
In the early 1970's, Mejias applied to patent offices in several countries to patent "a process for preparing a vaccine against cancer and other pathological processes having a similar etiology." (Mejias)
Proponent/ Advocate Claims
"His diagnosis and treatment are based on his discovery of a third principle of life, the first two being bacteria and viruses. The third basic form of life is claimed to be living enzymes which may either combine with genes to form cancer, or exist free to cause chronic non-malignant disease such as arthritis." (Silver)
"Many strains of bacteria express antigens that cross react with patients' antibodies to these enzymes. Thus, a universal test has been developed using a bacterial extract to yield flocculation (separation into particles) on heating with patients' sera." (Silver)
"The basis for the test, if it works at all, is most likely a reflection of acute phase reactants such as macroglobulin. These sorts of tests were quite popular at the turn of the century, before the blossoming of modern biochemistry." (Silver)
Professional Evaluation/ Critique
There is no published information to date in any peer-reviewed journals on Chacon Cancer Cure according to a literature search performed in MEDLINE and CANCERLIT (1966-June 1999).
"Treatments based on such a shaky foundation are most unlikely to be of any value. This particular proposal has in common with many remedies the linking of a testing procedure to a treatment, the use of 'natural' procedures, and the prospect of a panacea applicable for all types of cancer and chronic non-malignant disease. Further, there are no toxicity or efficacy tests in either animals or humans; reports from the proponent in scientific journals; or any independent affirmation from other sources." (Silver)
References
Mejias FC. Chacon Cancer. Unpublished manuscript. Cordoba, Spain: Chacon Cancer Society.
Silver HKB. Memorandum on Chacon cancer cure. Vancouver: BC Cancer Agency, 1986. (BCCA Cancer Information Centre search file 2079)
Revised February 2000