http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/THE_FOUNDATION/About_Dr_Matthias_Rath/letter_zurhausen_2008-aug.html

Response by Dr. Rath to the Invitation to Become a Reviewer of the International Journal of Cancer

On August 5, 2008, Dr. Rath received an official invitation from the Editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Cancer (IJC), Professor Harald zur Hausen, to become a scientific reviewer for that journal. Prof. zur Hausen is not only the Editor-in-chief of the IJC, but has served for more than two decades as head of the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Germany.

For almost half a century, Prof. zur Hausen has been a prominent voice in the pharmaceutically-oriented cancer research community. His invitation to Dr. Rath, a prominent critic of conventional cancer therapies and a pioneer of natural cancer research, is no coincidence. It reflects the beginning of the re-orientation of international cancer research to specifically include vitamins and other micronutrients in the fight against this epidemic.

This re-orientation was brought about by significant advances in micronutrient research in cancer, a new field of medicine led by Dr. Rath and his research team (www.dr-rath-research.org).

Realizing the significance of this historic moment, Dr. Rath invited the International Journal of Cancer and the German Cancer Research Center to join him – based on the widely available scientific evidence – in a global effort to largely eliminate cancer as a cause of death in future generations.

Following is the full text of Dr. Rath's letter to the Editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Cancer:

Professor Harald zur Hausen
Editor in Chief
International Journal of Cancer
Deutsches Krebsforschungs-Zentrum (DKFZ)

August 13, 2008

Dear Professor zur Hausen,

On August 5, 2008 I received a letter signed by you inviting me to become a reviewer for the International Journal of Cancer (IJC) one of the most influential journals in cancer research. Beside your position as the Editor in Chief of the IJC, you have been chairman of the board of the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) in Heidelberg for two decades, one of the world’s leading cancer research institutions.

In your letter you invite me to review a paper submitted to your journal for publication, documenting the value of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) in the fight against cancer. As the primary reason for this invitation to become a reviewer for your journal you state: “Because of your expertise and experience” in the field of cancer research. I can only interpret this statement as the official recognition of the key role of micronutrients in the control of cancers for which my research team and I have been fighting for more than a decade.

For your entire life you have been a prominent representative of conventional cancer approaches including toxic chemotherapy, radiotherapy and other approaches that primarily served one goal: to use the cancer epidemic as a global market for the pharmaceutical investment business with patented drugs.

For you to contact me – an outspoken critic of these conventional approaches to cancer and a scientific pioneer for new and natural approaches to cancer – was no coincidence. Your decision recognizes two important facts: 1. The deadlocks of pharmaceutically driven approaches to cancer and 2. The compelling perspectives of micronutrients as powerful preventive and therapeutic agents in the control of, essentially, all forms of human cancer.

With your letter you recognize the urgent need for a reorientation of cancer research to specifically include micronutrients in the world-wide fight against cancer. For that decision you should be commended. At the same time, I am fully aware that this step was not voluntary but was compelled by the simple fact that the breathtaking perspective of the natural control of cancer can no longer be ignored. With the world’s media regularly reporting the potential of vitamins and other micronutrients in reversing cancer, the dam is broken.

Considering the magnitude of negligence and obstruction towards micronutrients from the side of pharmaceutical medicine and considering the deadly consequences of this opposition for millions of cancer patients, your letter marks a turning point. It is obvious, however, that such a turning point in history cannot be guided by those who share responsibility for – or have at least tolerated – one of the darkest chapters in the history of mankind: the medical genocide in cancer.

In this situation, I have decided to respond to your letter in the form of an Open Letter to be shared with those most concerned about the way forward: The millions of cancer patients around the world. I am addressing you:

with the authority of the scientists whose discoveries now pave the way for the natural control of cancer;
with the confidence of one of the world’s leading research teams having paved the way for the natural control of cancer (www.dr-rath-research.org);
and in full recognition of the historic opportunity that now presents itself to all mankind: to largely eliminate cancer as a scourge for our children, grandchildren and all future generations.

Before outlining the way forward, I consider it my duty to raise some of the questions from a consternated and outraged public you and your colleagues will have to answer in the months to come:

The first studies that documented the potential value of vitamins in the fight against cancer were published more than half a century ago, when you were still a student. Why was this research neglected for decades by pharmaceutical cancer research? Because vitamins were not patentable?
In the intervening 50 years since the answer of pharmaceutical-oriented cancer research has been chemotherapy and radiology - therapeutic options of which the most frequent side-effects are to cause even more cancer. Why did pharmaceutical-oriented cancer researchers not promote effective and safe natural alternatives? Because keeping the cancer epidemic alive for 5 decades brought the drug companies more than a trillion dollars in sales?
For two decades you were the head of the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg with a total research budget of more than a billion Euros. Much of this money was public and taxpayer money provided for research in the public interest, namely to eliminate cancer. However, under your leadership much of this money was wasted for the development of ever more toxic chemotherapies, or for questionable vaccines with yet unpredictable side-effects. Why was this money not used for research with vitamins and other effective and safe cancer therapies? Who will pay back these hundreds of millions of wasted Euros?
In 1992 you published a research paper in the June 11 edition of the Journal of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). The results of your studies showed that retinoic acid, a form of vitamin A, can inhibit the development of cervical cancer cells infected with the so-called papillomavirus. Did you ever inform the public about these important results? Did you conduct clinical studies to save the lives of cancer patients, many of them young women? Did you ever stand up when vitamin A was publicly discredited over many years in the interest of the pharmaceutical industry?
On March 8, 2002, our research institute published the breakthrough in the field of cancer research showing the potentiating effect of a micronutrient combination in controlling cancer: “Our research proves that vitamin C, lysine, proline and specific extracts from green tea (polyphenols) can inhibit the spread of cancer cells.” To reach not only the scientific and medical community but also those millions of people directly affected by this disease, we published these findings on a full page in the world’s largest newspaper, USA Today. Why didn’t you take this life-saving information and make every effort to confirm it at your center?
In March 2003, together with researchers from our institute, we organized a lecture tour through Germany . We selected the five university cities, which are known to have a special focus in cancer research, among them Heidelberg , where the DKFZ is located. While the lecture halls were packed with patients, none of your researchers contacted us to initiate a scientific collaboration. Why?
In 2004, when the pharmaceutical industry and its stakeholders in medicine and the media launched an unprecedented attack against our natural cancer research, did you stand up for the scientific facts? What will you tell those millions of cancer patients who over decades were deliberately misled about the health benefits of micronutrients? What will you tell the relatives of those cancer patients who discontinued taking micronutrients as a result of this misinformation and who paid the ultimate price?
In 2005 our research team sent research results for publication to your International Journal of Cancer about the strong effects of micronutrients in skin cancer (melanoma) – a particularly aggressive form of cancer. Instead of publishing it and sharing this important research with scientists and doctors around the world, publication was declined without your journal even having reviewed the data. Why has the International Journal of Cancer for decades almost exclusively published cancer research directly or indirectly serving the pharmaceutical investment interests? As the editor in chief of this journal, how could you let that happen?
In October 2006, I had to stand trial in a Hamburg court for publicly stating that vitamins and micronutrients help in the fight against cancer and for defending our research in this field. Because of the strength of our research, I did not have to go to jail. To the contrary, the judge described us as “pioneers” for a new era in cancer research. Where were you and your colleagues from the DKFZ? Did you take positions on the side of science and on behalf of millions of cancer patients?
That same year, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) a scientific journal similar in influence to your own, embarked on a global defamation campaign against vitamin and micronutrient research in cancer. A London court approved a record fine against the BMJ of GBP 100,000. Did you, as the Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Cancer, take public positions in this important debate?

While the truth about the life-saving role of micronutrients in the fight against cancer was obstructed over decades, more than six million cancer patients worldwide died each year. They paid the ultimate price for the obstruction of the truth in the interests of the pharmaceutical investment business with the cancer epidemic. In light of this historic failure it would be naļve to think that a solution can come from those researchers that were largely responsible for this tragedy – or at least tolerated it.

In the interest of millions of cancer patients I therefore consider it incumbent upon me to direct the way forward. Here is what needs to be done immediately:

Dedicate 50% of each future edition of the International Journal of Cancer to scientific and medical reports in the field of micronutrient research and other science-based natural health approaches to cancer.
Assure that science-based natural health research is adequately represented in the International Journal of Cancer by appointing new members to the editorial board, making sure that they are experts in the field of vitamin and micronutrient research and that they represent 50% of the members of the new board.
Appoint researchers from the field of micronutrient research to the governing bodies of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and allocate 50% of all future DKFZ budgets to micronutrient research in cancer.
Help make sure that micronutrient therapies are reimbursed by the health insurance providers as scientifically proven therapies in the fight against cancer.

In the interest of millions of people, these tasks need to be tackled immediately. Considering the immense task to redirect cancer research on a global level, your invitation for me to join your journal as a reviewer is a drop in the ocean.

I am inviting you and your research colleagues to join us in a vigorous international effort with the defined goal to end the cancer epidemic forever. The scientific rationale to reach this goal is available. What needs to be done now is to organize a global effort to end cancer, involving science, medicine, politics and all other sectors of society.

With millions of lives at stake, if you stay indifferent now, history will judge you. If you decide to act, we will join our forces towards this great goal all mankind has been waiting for. If this is the goal, my research team and I are ready to cooperate with your journal and your research colleagues at every level.

As a first step we propose to jointly organize a public symposium between your journal, the DKFZ and our research institute. At this symposium the best researchers from the DKFZ and from our research team would present their research to an audience of patients, doctors and the public at large. Such a symposium could serve as the beginning of an international campaign carried by our research institutes and others who will join us towards the eradication of cancer.

I am looking forward to your response.

Sincerely yours,

Matthias Rath, M.D.