According to a report from MIT Technology Review, cancer patients are being flooded with ads for unproven treatments on Instagram and Facebook. Dubious ads make assertions about drugs like Apatone, claiming that the treatment “kills” cancer. In order to receive treatment with Apatone — which hasn’t been proven to be more effective in treating cancer than conventional means — the ads suggest patients travel to a clinic in Tijuana, Mexico where the drug is offered for a hefty price.
That clinic, however, is a Mexico-based “community hospital” called Centro Hospitalario Internacional del Pacifico, S.A. (CHIPSA), which has offered unconventional cancer treatment since its inception in 1979. It doesn’t ascribe to conventional medicine, but instead to the century-old theories of Max Gerson, a German doctor who developed “Gerson Therapy” in the 1920s and ‘30s to treat migraines. The regimen is quite extreme: A daily diet of 20 pounds of fruit juice, supplements, and several daily coffee enemas. It’s been deployed as an unproven neuropathic treatment for a slew of other ailments, including cancer.
