Chapter Two
January 15, 1986
26 Federal Plaza, New York City
Testimony of Mary and Michael Yevchak
Congressional Public Hearing
CONGRESSMAN MOLINARI: Mary Yevchak. I learned about you when I got here today through your husband, who was telling me all about you. But, Mary, if you would take that microphone and bring it over.
But, Mary, if you would take that microphone and bring it over. MS. MARY YEVCHAK: Yes. THE CONGRESSMAN: Tell us your story: We would be happy to learn about it. MS. MARY YEVCHAK: I would like to submit these pictures of me. They are previous to going down to the Bahamas. It was after the treatments in the States. THE CONGRESSMAN: These are not your pictures; they are somebody else. Tell the truth, this is one of Dr. Burton’s hoaxes?I wouldn’t have been able to tell… MS. YEVCHAK: They told me that I was not bloated, but I was heavy and I should lose some weight. THE CONGRESSMAN: Tell us your story. MS. YEVCHAK: On January 19, 1984, I was admitted to the hospital with excruciating back and chest pains which, after x-rays of the chest were taken, showed a large mass just in front of my right lung.
Two days later, a biopsy was taken through the base of my throat. It showed cancer cells, but a definite diagnosis could not be made unless a larger specimen could be obtained.A second biopsy through my right rib cage led to a diagnosis of histiocytic diffused large cell lymphoma in the third stage. Upon this diagnosis, it was decided that the course of treatment would be chemotherapy. At this time doctors felt that I was not sufficiently aware of the seriousness of my condition; they felt it was necessary to shock me into the reality of my illness. When they started the intravenous chemotherapy, my family was told to leave the room. This was against my wishes because it was such a difficult time for me. The nurses who administered the chemotherapy proceeded to tell me all of the side effects. It would cause a loss of hair, and I would become sterile. This was especially traumatic to me since I had just been married two years and was looking forward to starting a family. This procedure continued for eight full days around the clock. On February 6th, I was released from the hospital with the understanding that further treatments would follow. Then early the next morning, I was rushed to the emergency room with severe swelling of the head and neck and difficulty in breathing and other associated complications.
While I was in the Emergency Room, I became unconscious, suffered a major vena cava syndrome, and was in grave danger of a stroke or worse. After an emergency meeting of the doctors involved, it was decided that I undergo immediate radiation therapy, plus intravenous diuretics to relieve me from the pressure of the water buildup.I continued the radiation treatments there and was released on February 13th as an outpatient.During the outpatient radiation treatments, I visited with my oncologist on several occasions. I was told that chemotherapy had very little effect, if any, on the cancer. But since there was no other course of treatment available other than radiation, he felt I should undergo additional chemotherapy treatments, two of which were PROMISE and MOPP, and a treatment to be injected into my spine. After receiving the first part of PROMISE-MOPP on February 22nd, and before the spinal treatment, I requested a second opinion before any further treatments were administered.My oncologist recommended a well-known doctor in New York.After studying my records and physical examination, he agreed with the course of treatment that had been suggested by my doctor, with the exception of the spinal treatment.At this point, I was having great difficulty swallowing due to the mucostitis of the throat, as well as the radiation and chemotherapy combined.All treatments had to be stopped, hoping the condition would improve. I was then taking fourteen different oral medications daily.On April 4th, I re-entered the hospital with a diagnosis of radiation and bacterial double pneumonia.I was confined to the hospital with oxygen, continuous intravenous antibiotics, and other medications.My throat condition worsened, and I was unable to swallow anything without extreme, intense pain. Due to the radiation damage, I was placed on large doses of steroids, which made me retain water and bloated me up nearly two hundred pounds.On February 18th, I was released from the hospital, but still under medication and bedridden.More radiation was recommended by the radiologist but I refused further treatments since they had been so destructive, even though it did reduce the tumor.I became very disillusioned with the treatments because the radiation was so damaging and the chemotherapy did not work as expected.I then became resigned to let nature take its own course.Through family and friends who knew of my condition and despair, I learned of an alternative treatment then available in the Bahamas.On April 28th, my husband and my brother visited the Immuno-Augmentative Therapy Clinic in Freeport, Bahamas.They were amazed at what they saw. The majority of the patients there were vibrant, happy, and enthusiastic in discussing their own treatment under Dr. Burton.My husband and brother decided then and there that this is where I belonged.Immediately, arrangements were made for my mother and me to go there.I was apprehensive at first, but my fears left as I could see a gradual improvement in my appearance and general condition.I was immediately taken off steroids and the bloating started to subside. I became stronger and enjoyed walking short distances for the first time in months since I was bed and wheelchair bound at the time.As time went on, I enjoyed more activities and my outlook on life improved.I was there a total of two months and returned home to continue my daily injections at home.Two weeks later, I returned to my job as a schoolteacher and secretary on a full-time basis.I visited my oncologist, who knew I had been to the IAT Clinic for treatment, who gave me a thorough examination and could find no trace of the disease, even though he had told me previously that without chemotherapy the disease would spread and tumors would grow throughout my body; it would then be too late for any treatment at all.He also advised me at the time that I had less than two percent chance of living six months.My oncologist continued to examine me periodically and seemed quite astonished with the general improvement of my condition.At the last visit he could find no evidence of the cancerous condition and stated that it may have been a misdiagnosis and that it could possibly be thymoma instead of lymphoma, which is a much less serious condition.There has been no follow-up testing of this possible misdiagnosis.My oncologist then added, “I don’t know what you’re doing, but keep it up.”I have not been back to the doctor since.I’ve continued the IAT treatment continuously since my initial visit to Dr. Burton and returned the first time after three months and thereafter every six months.I have had no ill effects from this treatment. I suffer only the side effects of the chemotherapy and radiation which virtually destroyed my esophagus and has given me constant back pain, at times severe.I go frequently for esophageal dilatations, which are quite traumatic, and I have been advised that eventually removal of the destroyed esophagus will be necessary. If I am forced to discontinue treatment under Dr. Burton, my future will be uncertain since I have exhausted all other available forms of treatment in the United States.In conclusion, my personal opinion is that I feel my constitutional rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness has been completely violated. Considering this nation was founded on individual liberty, it is inconceivable to me that the freedom of choice is denied especially being my only alternative was death . . . in other words, go home and die quietly.This is my life; I am of sound mind, well educated, and a proud citizen of the United States of America.I sincerely believe and defend my human right to decide what is best for me.[Applause.]THE CONGRESSMAN: Did you have conversations with your oncologist about the treatments that you received in the Bahamas?MS. YEVCHAK: Yes, I did.When I initially told him that I was considering going to the Bahamas, he shook his head and said, “The guy is a quack, he is not going to hurt you; it’s only blood fractions, but the rest will do you good. Go down there and have a good time. Don’t stay too long.”He thought that I was going to have a nice vacation and come back and die.THE CONGRESSMAN: And then when you came back, what conversations did you have?MS. YEVCHAK: When I walked into the office, he had a comment. I can quote him, but it’s not too nice.He said, quote unquote, “Oh, shit, I am in trouble.”THE CONGRESSMAN: Well, we want that on the record.[Applause.]THE CONGRESSMAN: We are going to move this along quickly. But, Mr. Yevchak, trade seats with your wife and let me hear your husband’s view of what happened here since you were directly involved and entered the clinic. You went there.I guess from Mary, from your testimony, they went to the clinic before you did; he went with your brother, is that what happened?MS. YEVCHAK: Yes.THE CONGRESSMAN: What is your first name?MR. MICHAEL YEVCHAK: Michael.Two weeks prior to Mary and I going to the Bahamas, Mary’s brother and I took the earliest flight that we could, after being badgered by her sister-in-law because we watched a very close friend of ours die from chemotherapy.And we flew down immediately on a… I think it was Thursday night; Friday morning we went to the clinic.And I walked in the front door of the clinic and the girls were behind the desk, behind the wall, and I asked to see some of the cancer patients and the doctors, and the whole room was full of them and they all looked like they were going to play tennis.Joe and I looked at each other and said, “Either this is CANDID CAMERA, or it’s for real.”And we spoke to a few people that were in the office that were carrying these funny little clocks around their necks, and they were sticking themselves with needles.We are simple people. I am not as well educated as my wife.I am a truck driver. I am like—wait a minute, let’s be serious here.We sat and talked with the doctor for an hour, an extensive discussion about—THE CONGRESSMAN: Which doctor was this?MR. YEVCHAK: Which one? Dr. Pratt. She told us that Mary was accepted according to some records that were previously sent down, and we went. When I left my wife there, she was a bundle of nerves, hysterical; she couldn’t walk. My brother-in-law and I had to carry her there. She cried constantly.
I guess that’s a woman for you. That will get me in trouble.THE CONGRESSMAN: Better you than me.MR. YEVCHAK: It’s my wife, I can say it.Three or four weeks later—she couldn’t walk when I left. When I came back, she was standing at the airport in a little alcove in a pair of running shorts, jumping up and down, hysterically laughing.I couldn’t believe it was my own wife. I couldn’t believe it.THE CONGRESSMAN: Maybe it wasn’t. That’s not the same woman in the picture that I saw.MR. YEVCHAK: Not, when Dr. Burton got done with her.I, at that point, I just couldn’t… I was dumbstruck, I couldn’t believe it.I came back and the oncologist was absolutely convinced. He knew about Burton. It was not a matter of the good doctor here where he had no knowledge. He knew and so did the other two specialists in his office.And they absolutely, one hundred percent, said that “Whatever she’s doing, do. But I don’t want anything to do with it, I won’t promote it, I won’t say anything about it.”The only thing that is wrong with my wife right now is symptomatic from chemotherapy and radiation. That is it.THE CONGRESSMAN: Thank you very much.
MR. YEVCHAK: Thank you very much for the opportunity.THE CONGRESSMAN: Thank you.
We will seek to have the next panel. I must tell you that I am absolutely intrigued by what I am seeing and hearing here. January 15, 1986
Testimony of Mary and Michael Yevchak
Congressional Public Hearing
A Hearing on the Immuno-Augmentative Therapy of Dr. Lawrence Burton
Before: Congressman Guy V. Molinari
26 Federal Plaza
New York, New York
Present:
Mike Torrusio
Edward Burke
Robert Dizard
Robert Shaw,CSR Court Reporter
Chapter three
January 1993
York and Seventieth Street, New York City
This story can start in many places, but I guess the corner of York and Seventieth Street is a good place to start. My uncle and I are on our second hotdogs from a foreign-speaking dirty-water hotdog vendor. We had just seen one of the top surgical oncologists in the world at the famous Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital. One month earlier, life was great until Will was diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma, a very aggressive liver cancer. Between bites, Will inquired, “What did the doctor say when I left the room?”
“What are you talking about?” I lied. When Will left to get changed, I had cornered the doctor before he could leave the room. I was sure Will hadn’t seen me talk to the doctor privately. I was wrong.
“Dave, cut the crap, what do you think, you’re slick?” We both laughed. I was laughing on the outside but crushed on the inside. I was able to ask all the serious questions without Will in the room and hated every answer I heard. I was hoping that I would have time to figure out an easy way to tell him the truth but that chance was long gone. I was on the spot. Will was a no-bullshit guy and would see through me in a minute if I lied.
“He said you have a big problem; he didn’t say it like that, but that’s the bottom line,” sounds like a poor choice of words but that was why Will had chosen me to come with him. He knew I wouldn’t sugarcoat the facts and knew from the beginning that he had to face the music whatever the doctor had said.
“What did he tell you?” I answered his question with a question to buy some time.
“He told me to go back to the liver specialist and do whatever he says; he said he can’t operate on me,” Will confessed.
“He told me the same thing; an operation would not work, probably kill you if he tries. Told me also that the prognosis, the outcome, is very poor, told me to make sure your things are in order.”
Will pushed, “Did he say how long? Don’t lie to me, Dave, I need to know.”
Over the last three weeks, I read every medical text on primary liver cancer I could get my hands on. Every one was worse than the other. Prognosis was grim. Treatment was futile. Medical intervention, unsatisfactory. Hepatocellular tumors also known as hepatomas were not radiosensitive, which meant radiation treatment would be a waste of time. Chemotherapy had unimpressive results. If the tumors were small, there was a chance with surgery to buy some time, but Will had three big liver tumors and if this doctor at Sloan advised against it, the surgical buck stopped there.
“He said a couple of months, if you’re lucky.”
We both were speechless for what seemed like forever till Will broke the silence.
“Where do we go from here, Dave?” Will asked.
“I’m working on it,” I replied with a fake smile.
“Did you ask him about that treatment in the Bahamas?” Earlier in the week I was able to give Will a short version of the story that I was able to piece together from the congressional documents I had in my possession. I told him about the maverick self-exiled scientist by the name of Lawrence Burton, who was attempting to control cancer from his earlier research as a senior research scientist at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York in the sixties and seventies. It did not take me long to determine that Will’s options were limited with conventional treatment, so I researched many nonconventional treatment protocols for cancer. Burton’s research had made a lot of sense and was based on years of scientific investigation at well-respected research institutions in the States.
“Yeah, I asked him about it,” I said with a smile that was bordering a laugh.
“What did he say?” Will was like a kid waiting for an answer.
“He said you will probably get AIDS if I take you to that clinic; he also gave me a five-minute lecture on how hard it is to lose your medical license in the State of New York and how Burton was thrown out of the country.” Will wanted to know what he said and I gave it to him just like I heard it from the famous surgical oncologist.
“Wait a minute, didn’t you tell me that Burton is a scientist, not a medical doctor, and that he left on his own terms?” Will was getting interested.
“He is not a medical doctor; he is a PhD scientist specializing in cancer research.” I was sure of that fact.
“And didn’t you tell me that the AIDS scare was inconclusive and based on false allegations; you said they closed his clinic but they reopened it after pressure from a congressional hearing. Why would he say that, a big doctor at Sloan-Kettering who treats cancer?” Will was puzzled.
“Let’s get some coffee and I will tell you all I found out about Burton. Actually, Will, it is an amazing story. It reads like fiction; if what I am reading is true, this could possibly be one of the biggest medical conspiracies of the century.”
We shuffled down the street to a little outside café, and I told Will all I knew from what I had read.
I started by telling him all the misinformation I found from the American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, the Center for Disease Control, as well as from the American Medical Association. Articles that were written in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, and others were filled with false statements as compared to information from a congressional hearing on the therapy. There were rumors that Burton’s nontoxic cancer treatment was giving his patients HIV/AIDS and hepatitis, and through pressure from the conventional cancer establishment, they forced the clinic to be closed at the price of five hundred cancer patients benefiting from the treatment. Congress had to intervene to investigate the statements that were made, and after a short period the clinic was reopened. Will was starting to get more interested.
“These medical groups or established organizations that made all these accusations about Burton’s research and his treatment, what did they present as evidence at the congressional hearing?” Will asked.
“Ready for this, they were all invited by Congressman Guy Molinari, who had spearheaded the congressional hearing; he wanted them to present their facts to substantiate their accusations against Burton’s therapy which they claimed was dangerous and ineffective. The stage was set for a balanced congressional hearing at Federal Plaza in downtown New York before a ton of press reporters. All were no–shows.”
“Really! Tell me more, now you have my attention.” Will was like a sponge absorbing information.
I started from the beginning. I told Will about Burton’s theory from what I had read.
Immuno-Augmentative Therapy was the name of the treatment developed by Lawrence Burton, PhD, and his research team. He was a renowned cancer researcher from New York University who in his early research years attempted to unravel the cancer mystery. His observations from his research led him and others to believe that the isolation of naturally occurring proteins found in human blood sera played a beneficial role in controlling cancer (see Appendix A, Table A, for a detailed explanation of IAT proteins). Burton and his research group were able to isolate these naturally occurring proteins in the blood, and following laboratory research with mice in the 1970’s, Burton was successful at obtaining U.S. patents for the sera which provided the basis for IAT (Immuno-Augmenatative Therapy).
The therapy, which is nontoxic and results in no dangerous side effects, involves daily or twice-daily tests of the levels and proportions of four proteins that are within the patient’s bloodstream. Small subcutaneous self-administered injections (patients inject themselves) to bring these four proteins back into balance. According to Burton’s research, this helps control cancer by restoring the competence of the patient’s own immune system. The IAT view is that the controlling mechanism that deals specifically with cancer is deficient or out of balance. Through IAT, they attempt to restore the cancer patient’s immune competency to a level by which it can control the cancer.
A computer program determines the correct doses of these naturally occurring proteins. The basis of IAT is the measurement of four blood proteins and subcutaneous introduction (self-injections, similar to a diabetic regulating their blood sugar) of three of the proteins essential to correcting the immunosuppression manifested in patients with cancer. They encourage surgery whenever possible to remove the bulk of the tumor, and their therapy deals with attacking the cancer cells without causing any damage to the host, the patient.
“Dave, let me see if I get it. Burton’s theory is that there is a response in our bodies that naturally deals with killing cancer cells and he tries to balance this activity through isolating and reinjecting these factors into the bloodstream of the cancer patient.” Will wanted very badly to understand what I was trying my best to explain.
“Right, he is trying to restore the natural balance of systemic, what is in our bodies, levels of tumor-killing immune complexes, the things in our body that naturally and innately fight and destroy abnormal tumor growth. Will, the immune surveillance theory was suggested years ago by other scientists such as Paul Ehrich and Sir Macfarlane Burnet, a Nobel laureate. Most scientists believe there is a link between failures of the immune system and cancer.” I think he was starting to understand by his reaction.
“Dave, did he present this to other cancer researchers in this country?”
“He published 16 articles in well-respected journals of his earlier work that was the foundation of his treatment. During the ’60s and ’70s, Burton and a fellow scientist, Frank Friedman, reported discovering cancer-inhibiting factors in mice. In one of their experiments, daily administration of these factors was said to eliminate palpable, diseased, soft-tissue tumors in 26 of 50 mice with leukemia. The treated animals appeared to survive significantly longer than the controls. In another experiment, Burton reported that 37 of 68 experimental animals survived for an average of 131 days without any evidence of leukemia, versus a 12-day average survival of untreated mice. This information was documented, and I obtained it from the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment.”
“Will, he claimed he did not find the cure for cancer but a nontoxic way to have the person or animal, the host, live with the cancer. Life extension and improved quality of life. Some have had complete remission, but I’m getting ahead of things.”
“Did he present this to other scientists? To Sloan-Kettering and American Cancer Society?” Will asked.
I told him what I read and what was documented. “He did two well-known presentations wherein he injected tumorous mice in front of a large audience of oncologists, pathologists, and science writers at the prestigious New York Academy of Medicine and was able to demonstrate tumor shrinkage right before their eyes.”
“Then what happened?” Will was on the edge of his seat.
“Sloan-Kettering and American Cancer Society offered him a deal. They offered him peanuts for his life’s work and he would have to give up control and credit to them, so he . . . ”
Will cut me off, “He told them to go to hell!”
“That’s exactly what happened. How did you know?” I asked.
“You told me last week that some people thought he was an egomaniac, arrogant, foul-mouth genius. Of course he turned them down. I’m starting to like the guy already,” Will confessed with a smile. “This guy Burton sounds like a feisty bulldog in a china shop, and the china shop is the cancer establishment.”
“I get it, but when you look at the record, that was the beginning of the end for this guy with the cancer establishment. In retrospect it was academic suicide; shortly after that he lost his funding. They terminated his project, and they refused to publish his future work. Believe it or not, what followed will blow you away. He legally opened a clinic in Great Neck, New York, with a team of medical physicians and started getting results with cancer patients. New York Magazine did a cover story on him entitled “The Politics of Cancer: Why Won’t the Medical Establishment Pay Attention to These Two Men?” Years later, 60 Minutes did a show on him, and the patients that were responding to his therapy.
“He made all the papers, and this just made the establishment attack more with calls of quackery. He applied through all the right channels to get accepted but was met with unrealistic requests from the FDA, so he advised the FDA to inactivate his file and chose to continue his research and treatment out of the country since he believed he could move the work further without harassment. It all came out at the congressional hearing.”
Will was just shaking his head, “Now I know why that surgical oncologist today said those things; when you attack an enemy, misinformation is a very dangerous weapon.” Will was not book smart but when it came to street-smarts and reading people, Will was the master. “The American Cancer Society, JAMA, and National Cancer Institute Society are where doctors in this country get information about new treatments. If the information is wrong from there, they are just like soldiers listening to a commander’s orders; the assumption of correct information is a given.”
“Will, when you look at people’s testimony that were involved and compare it to the record, it looks like someone is not telling the truth. That hearing was years ago, but when you go to those agencies today, they are still giving out false information. Not balanced at all. The funny thing is, the more people this guy treated and helped, the more aggressive these agencies became against him and his results. Unbelievable stuff, the only words I can use to get the point across is that what happened to this guy was a form of McCarthyism or Gestapo tactics.
“The bottom line, Will, from what I read, is that after some pretty brave actions by some very honorable people, the clinic was reopened, none of the serum was conclusively contaminated, nobody had gotten AIDS or became HIV-positive, and the facility presently has the best blood-screening equipment in the world to safeguard their patients. I don’t want you to take my word for it. I will get you the information that I have read and you can read it for yourself. It’s unbelievable.” Will looked like his old self once again.
“Dave, I heard some journalists on the radio some time ago. They said something like each cancer patient is worth fifty to two hundred thousand dollars per patient to the hospital, drug company, and all those that get involved with the treatment of that patient when they have cancer. Think about the kind of money that the treatment of cancer generates. I think they said it is an 80-billion-dollar industry. American Cancer Society collects something like 400 million dollars a year and most of those dollars are spent on the society’s investments, administration, salaries, and perks. Administration first and the research is lost in the scuffle. I also read that in the charter of the American Cancer Society, it is written that when they find a cure, they will disband. Are they interested in a scientist who has a treatment that is not a drug or a protocol from which huge profits cannot be generated, Dave? I don’t think so.”
I had to cut him off. “Will, I heard that Burton is paranoid. Now you’re starting to sound paranoid.”
Will knew more than I thought he knew about things; once again he impressed me. “Dave, do you know that many of the head directors at Sloan-Kettering, which I think is the largest private center for cancer treatment and research in the world, are also top directors at major drug companies. The people making and profiting from the drugs at times could be the same people overseeing the research on those drugs. Is this a conflict of interest? What do you think? Is there a connection between the drug companies, AMA, the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, and places like the Memorial Sloan-Kettering? Is it possible that agencies acting together can shut out and destroy an independent scientist if they wanted to? Why the hell would they want a nontoxic treatment to disrupt their applecart? They couldn’t buy it or control it from Burton, so it looks like they tried to bury him, Dave. Stranger things have happened.” Will looked pissed and was getting off track.
“Listen, Will, maybe there is a closed-door medical mafia out there somewhere, but right now all I care about is getting you in the right place to treat you. Think about what we talked about today and I will catch up with you in a day or so; I have some congressional minutes in my car that I’m finished with that I want you to read. There is a ton of congressional minutes I still have to review, but I think it will help us make an informed decision on what you want to do. You don’t have many choices: chemo, do nothing, or Burton in the Bahamas. Let’s get out of here; that was the longest cup of coffee I ever had, three and a half hours. My head is killing me; how do you feel?”
Will got up, and we fought over the bill. “That’s the funny thing, Dave. I have these big tumors in my liver, but I feel great.”
I thought to myself, “How long will that last?”
We walked to my car, and I reminded Will that seven years earlier in this same month, the congressional hearing on Immuno-Augmentative Therapy took place a few short miles from where we were standing. People from all over the hemisphere converged on a small piece of square footage in downtown New York to tell their story with the hope of reopening their clinic and helping separate fact from fiction concerning Burton’s treatment and research.
I gave Will some sworn testimony of a few of Burton’s patients and of Burton himself from the congressional hearing on January 15, 1986, at Federal Plaza New York. As we said our goodbyes, I had a funny feeling that we both wouldn’t get much sleep that night.
This time I was right.
