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From the High Desert book cover

From the High Desert

A Cultural History of Art Bell

Thumbnail for August 5, 1997: Alternative Cancer Treatments - Bob Guccione

August 5, 1997: Alternative Cancer Treatments - Bob Guccione

Aug 5, 1997
40m
0:00 / 0:00
Art Bell speaks with Penthouse Magazine publisher Bob Guccione about his wife Kathy Keaton's remarkable recovery from terminal stage four breast cancer. Diagnosed two years earlier with cancer that had spread throughout her lymph nodes, liver, stomach, and bones, Kathy was given three to six weeks to live. She refused chemotherapy and radiation, instead choosing hydrazine sulfate, an inexpensive compound Penthouse had investigated for 18 years.

Bob details how hydrazine sulfate combats cachexia, the wasting process that ultimately kills cancer patients, while also shrinking tumors. He describes flying staff to Japan and Italy to obtain vitamin K3, a complementary treatment unavailable in the United States due to pharmaceutical industry resistance. He reports that Kathy is now in complete remission and healthier than ever, at a treatment cost of roughly $150 per year compared to tens of thousands for conventional therapy.

Bob describes how the National Cancer Institute sabotaged UCLA clinical trials by administering incompatible substances to 600 patients, then declared hydrazine sulfate ineffective. He announces plans for a class action lawsuit and urges families of the trial participants to contact Penthouse with their stories.

Key Moments

  1. Kathy Keaton given six weeks to live: Guccione recounts how a clear mammogram became, six weeks later, stage IV breast cancer that had metastasized to her liver, stomach, pancreas, ribs and bones - with doctors at Mount Sinai telling him she had three to six weeks left.

  2. Keaton refuses chemo, picks hydrazine sulfate: Guccione explains that Kathy refused chemotherapy and radiation, citing his Penthouse reporting on Dr. Joe Gold's hydrazine sulfate work at the Syracuse Cancer Research Center and the Soviet Academy's 17-year human trials.

  3. From six weeks to a year in remission: Guccione states flatly that two years after the death sentence Kathy is alive, in complete remission for nearly a year, healthier than ever and weighing more than she did before.

  4. NCI accused of sabotaging UCLA hydrazine trials: Guccione lays out his specific charge: UCLA's 1989-93 hydrazine sulfate trial of 600 patients was taken over by the NCI, which gave incompatible drugs and foods, all 600 patients died, and a GAO investigation surfaced an internal NCI memo about the very protocol they claimed not to know.

  5. Vitamin K3 smuggled from Italy via Israel: Guccione describes flying a courier to Tokyo for vitamin K3, finding the formulation incompatible with hydrazine, then locating an Italian manufacturer (via Israel) whose K3 converts to K2 in the body and having someone hand-carry it back to the US.