#1574: Kelley Eidem

Quacks are a dime a dozen, but few seems to require more gullibility on the part of their victims than William Kelley Eidem. Eidem is the author of the book The Doctor That Cures Cancer, the blurb of which reads: “The controversial Emanuel Revici, M.D., [whom retired MD Lynne August calls “the Einstein of medicine”] made the bones grow back in cancer patients, and restored health to AIDS patients as well as drug addicts and alcoholics. His medicines lifted debilitating migraines in as little as 3 minutes. Revici’s reward? He was attacked and ostracized by the best. JAMA published false reports about his work. The American Cancer Society blasted him time and again. Meanwhile, word of mouth brought new patients to see him for decades. The smears didn’t work, so something more needed to be done. This is the true story of the greatest medical scientist who has ever lived. Find out what happened to Dr. Revici and find out how you can use the principles of his discoveries to reverse even advanced cancers and many other illnesses.” The methods are briefly described here.It’s insane gibberish and quackery, and that is to put it pretty mildly. (The JAMA report, by the way, was a small prospective study of Revici’s methods from 1965: Of 33 cases with established cancer 22 died, 8 left the study because they were unimproved by the treatment, and the final three still alive under Revici’s care 18 months later all exhibited signs of tumor progression. But you know. Conspiracies and so on.)

What’s Eidem’s evidence for the efficacy of the methods? Oh, he’s got an anecdote – himself: “One morning as I was about to step into the shower, I noticed a couple of large round looking red splotches on my thigh and calf. They were about the size of a half dollar,” which is almost definitely not cancer but a skin rash. Why did Eidem think it was cancer? He used … a pregnancy test: “Many years earlier, I’d also learned that the common pregnancy tests sold in drug stores will sometimes produce a positive result if the person taking the test has cancer.” So he took a pregnancy test, which he claims was positive; therefore cancer. He didn’t bother seeking out a doctor, since chemotherapy is apparently worthless anyways. Instead, he applied his own methods, and … “All of my lesions went away in about four or five days.” Suffice to say: If you think there is any point in investigating his methods further you probably deserve an entry in our Encyclopedia yourself.