Nicholas Gonzalez (physician)

Nicholas James Gonzalez (December 28, 1947 – July 21, 2015) was a New York–based physician known for developing the Gonzalez regimen (or Gonzalez protocol), an alternative cancer treatment.[1][2][3] Gonzalez's treatments are based on the belief that pancreatic enzymes are the body's main defense against cancer and can be used as a cancer treatment.[4] His methods have been generally rejected by the medical community.[1] and he has been characterized as a quack and fraud by other doctors[3] and health fraud watchdog groups. In 1994 Gonzalez was reprimanded and placed on two years' probation by the New York State Medical Board for "departing from accepted practice".[1][3]

In one non-randomized clinical trial of terminally ill patients with pancreatic cancer, the Gonzalez-treated patients were found to have died much earlier than those treated with conventional chemotherapy. A better quality of life was reported by the chemotherapy arm.[5]

  1. ^ a b c "Maverick moves to mainstream". www.signonsandiego.com. Archived from the original on 23 June 2002. Retrieved 29 July 2008.
  2. ^ "The Alternative Fix". Frontline. PBS.
  3. ^ a b c Specter, M (2 May 2001). "The Outlaw Doctor; Cancer researchers used to call him a fraud. What's changed?". The New Yorker. p. 48.
  4. ^ Gonzalez, Nicholas (November–December 2012). "Nicholas Gonzalez, MD: an enzyme approach to cancer. Interview by Karen Burnett" (PDF). Altern Ther Health Med. 18 (6): 54–65. PMID 23251944.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference nih-patient was invoked but never defined (see the help page).