Nicholas Gonzalez (physician) facts for kids

Nicholas James Gonzalez (born December 28, 1947 – died July 21, 2015) was a doctor from New York. He was known for creating a special way to treat cancer called the Gonzalez regimen or Gonzalez protocol. This treatment is an alternative cancer treatment, meaning it's different from standard medical care.

Gonzalez believed that certain body chemicals, called pancreatic enzymes, were the main way the body fights cancer. He thought these enzymes could be used to treat cancer. However, most doctors and the wider medical community did not agree with his methods. They often said his treatments were not proven to work. In 1994, the New York State Medical Board told Gonzalez he was "departing from accepted practice." This meant his methods were not what most doctors would do.

In one study of very sick patients with pancreatic cancer, those who followed the Gonzalez treatment sadly died much sooner than those who received regular chemotherapy. Patients who had chemotherapy also said they had a better quality of life.

About Nicholas Gonzalez

Nicholas Gonzalez was born on December 28, 1947, in Flushing, New York. He went to Brown University and studied English literature. He did very well there, graduating with high honors.

From 1970 to 1977, Gonzalez worked as a journalist. He wrote for magazines like New York Magazine, Family Health Magazine, and Prevention Magazine. While writing about health topics, he became very interested in medical research, especially about cancer.

Later, Gonzalez went back to school to become a doctor. He studied at Columbia University and then got his medical degree from Cornell University in 1983. During medical school, he worked with a famous doctor named Robert A. Good. After becoming a doctor, Gonzalez continued his training at Vanderbilt University. He also worked with Dr. Good again, studying how the body's defense system (immunology) works.

Gonzalez passed away on July 21, 2015, when he was 67 years old. Doctors think he had a heart attack.

His Cancer Treatment and How It Was Seen

Gonzalez started using his special treatment methods in 1987. He based his ideas on earlier work by an orthodontist named William Donald Kelley. Gonzalez believed that cancer happened because people ate poorly. He also thought that not eating the right foods for your "metabolic type," along with pollution and daily stress, made health problems worse.

The Gonzalez regimen suggested big changes in how people lived and ate. It also included using special oral pancreatic enzymes. Patients would take many dietary supplements, sometimes up to 150 pills a day. They also did twice-daily coffee enemas.

The National Cancer Institute and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine looked into Gonzalez's treatments. They found that the results were "limited and inconclusive." This means they couldn't clearly say if the treatment worked for cancer.

In 1999, Gonzalez wrote an article about some pancreatic cancer patients who lived longer after his treatment. However, other experts later said that these patients might have lived longer for other reasons, not just because of the treatment. This is called "selection bias."

Why Mainstream Medicine Didn't Accept It

Like his teacher, William Donald Kelley, Gonzalez's treatment was "rejected" by most doctors. Other doctors and groups that watch out for health fraud said Gonzalez was practicing quackery or fraud.

In 1994, the New York state medical board told Gonzalez he had "departed from accepted practice." He had to go through more training and do community service. After completing these, he was allowed to practice medicine fully in New York.

Gonzalez also faced two lawsuits where he was found responsible for harm to patients. In 1997, a court in New York said Gonzalez was "negligent" in his cancer treatment. He had to pay a large amount of money to a patient. This patient had uterine cancer. Gonzalez told her not to follow her cancer specialist's advice. Instead, he suggested dietary supplements and frequent coffee enemas. The patient chose his treatment over standard care. Later, her cancer spread, and she developed serious health problems, including losing her eyesight.

In 2000, Gonzalez was partly found responsible for the death of a patient with Hodgkin's lymphoma. He had used an unproven way to check for cancer instead of standard tests. He was ordered to pay damages in this case too.

The American Cancer Society says there is "no convincing scientific evidence" that the Gonzalez treatment helps treat cancer. They also warn that some parts of the treatment might even be harmful. For example, there's no proof that coffee enemas work, and they can cause bad side effects. Experts also pointed out that Gonzalez's 1999 study was too small and had problems in its design.

Gonzalez always said he wanted his research to be checked by independent scientists. He didn't completely reject standard medicine.

A Big Study (Clinical Trial)

A big study, called a randomized phase III clinical trial, was set up to test the Gonzalez Regimen for pancreatic cancer. This study received a lot of money from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the National Cancer Institute. It started in 1999 at Columbia University.

The study wanted to compare Gonzalez's treatment (pancreatic enzymes plus a special diet) with standard chemotherapy. However, it was hard to find patients for the study. Many eligible patients didn't want to be randomly assigned to one treatment or the other. So, in 2001, the study changed to an observational study. This meant they just watched what happened to patients who chose each treatment.

The study found that patients who used the Gonzalez regimen lived for about 4.3 months on average. Patients who received standard chemotherapy lived for about 14 months on average. The chemotherapy group also reported a better quality of life.

Some experts said it was concerning that expensive CAM therapies like Gonzalez's didn't have strong proof that they worked. They also said the study had some flaws in its design, which meant it couldn't give a final answer. However, some still saw the results as a strong sign that the Gonzalez therapy was not effective.

The study was also criticized because Gonzalez's ideas about how cancer develops didn't match what scientists generally understand. His past lawsuits were also a concern.

See also

• List of ineffective cancer treatments