Emanuel Revici, MD: efforts to publish the clinical findings of a pioneer in lipid-based cancer therapy—Part 2

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, Oct, 2004 by Marcus A. Cohen

Goldman had reported on the palliative effects of Revici's therapy. He next proposed a trial of its therapeutic effects, requesting approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Queens General Hospital, where he served as a resident. Another entry from the ACS dossier on Revici picked up the story: "Early in January Dr. Cameron received a phone call from Dr. Alfred Angrist, Pathologist at Queens General Hospital. Dr. Cameron prepared a memorandum which is in the files. Dr. Angrist felt that Dr. Revici exerted strong psychotherapeutic influences on patients, and discussed his personal feelings, as Chairman of the Hospital Committee on Research and Publications, with regard to hospital approval of a paper on the Revici treatment by Dr. Goldman. Because of Dr. Angrist's strong 'anti' feelings, an ad hoc committee had been appointed to consider the particular paper, and Dr. Angrist felt that the committee's membership had been stacked. At his request, Dr. Cameron suggested Drs. Gellhorn, Bodansky, and Schoenbach as'additional committee members." (16)

Minutes from meetings of the IAB's board of directors in 1952 relate that the "restacked" IRB at Queens General denied Goldman approval. In 1986, Dr. Goldman addressed the Regents of the State of New York, in a written plea supporting Revici's struggle with the OPMC to remain in practice. He noted his early interest in Revici's treatment, and--for the first time publicly--he disclosed that his studies on lipid therapy had cost him his residency privileges.

While the ACS and associated elements in mainstream medicine were helping to clip Dr. Goldman's wings behind the scenes, The New York Times printed a feature on the IAB in its December 2, 1952 issue. (17) The writer, William L. Laurence, was probably the most distinguished science reporter at that time; the US had broken the news of the A-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki under his byline. The first three paragraphs of Laurence's report on the IAB ran: "Animal experiments and tests on patients in advanced stages of cancer were described last night by leaders in medicine as lending 'strong support' to a new concept of malignant disease that may lead to a radically new approach to its ultimate control.

"The progress reports on the new methods, developed at the Institute of Applied Biology, Brooklyn, were presented at the fifth annual dinner of the Cancer Research and Hospital Foundation at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. More than 400 leaders in medicine and other professions, as well as leaders in industry and civic affairs, were present.

"One of the reports was prepared by Dr. John Masterson of Brooklyn, former president of the Medical Society of the State of New York and a member of the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association. He is now attending the AMA meeting at Denver and the report was read in his absence. Other reports were presented by Dr. John M. Galbraith, past president of the Nassau County Medical Society; Dr. Emauel Revici, scientific director of the Institute; and Dr. Robert Ravich, assistant director."