HEALTH & SCIENCE

Cancer center called sham, closed down

Cross-border law-enforcement activities protect U.S. patients from being taken advantage of by non-U.S. companies making false and fraudulent claims, authorities say.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. March 10, 2003.

Washington -- A successful effort by the United States, Mexico and Canada to shut down a cancer-treatment operation has prompted renewed calls to seriously ill patients and their families to discuss treatment options with their physicians.

"The joint law-enforcement effort sends a clear message to those who would take advantage of patients with serious illnesses that just because you cross the border you cannot evade the law," said Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Mark McClellan, MD, PhD.

"There is also a clear message for patients," he said at a Feb. 20 news conference to announce the action. "We need you to be careful as well about the possible treatments for your condition."

The cancer-treatment center was run by operators in Canada, but the alleged therapies -- which cost hundreds of primarily U.S. cancer patients $15,000 each -- were given in Tijuana, Mexico, said Howard Beales, director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

The FTC charged the Canadian firm, CSCT Inc., with making false claims that it could treat cancer by using an electromagnetic device to kill cancer cells. The company claimed that its Zoetron machine, or Cell Specific Cancer Therapy, could be used successfully to treat breast, lung, brain and liver cancers.

The FTC said the device cannot kill cancer cells and that the claims made for the therapy are false. The magnet used in the device is no stronger than a magnet used to affix paper to a refrigerator door, said Beales.

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