Revici's guided chemotherapy -

Is an ineffective cancer treatment devised by Emanuel Revici (1896–1997).  Revici's early work on experimental chemical-based treatments for cancer between 1920–1941 attracted a degree of support. However his work increasingly found disfavor with the scientific and medical communities and his license was revoked in 1993. Revici's Guided Chemotherapy is based on the idea that all illness is caused by an "imbalance" of metabolism and these illnesses (including cancer) may have a predominance of one group of lipids (sterols) or the opposite (fatty acids).  He believed the former was anabolic or constructive and the latter to be catabolic or destructive. By using urinalysis (specific gravity, pH, surface tension) and blood test results, he prescribed substances of his own formulation that were designed to correct the “offbalance” in the body.  The treatment is giving a mixture of chemical substances that wer “anabolic” including lipid alcohols, lithium, zinc, iron, caffeine) or catabolic (fatty acids, sulfer, selenium, and magnesium).  Patients were told how to test their urine at home to alter their therapy from catabolic to anabolic and vice versa. These substances were taken by mout or by injection.  The American Cancer Society notes that this "chemotherapy" is entirely different from modern conventional chemotherapy, and states: "Available scientific evidence does not support claims that Revici's guided chemotherapy is effective in treating cancer or any other disease. It may also cause potentially serious side effects."  The American Cancer Society specifically recommended in 1989 that patients avoid such treatments.  Typically the patients that were seeking treatment using this method had advanced cancer or AIDs that had failed traditional medical treatment.  Because Revici failed to publish results of his medical treatment and failed to use standard measures of successful treatment, he did not garner the support of the medical community. The treatment is considered experimental in spite of 60 years of its use.