ONE of the leading advocates of alternative health therapies has been found to have misled patients over cancer treatment after an undercover investigation by The Sunday Times.
Dr Julian Kenyon, medical director of the Dove Clinic in Hampshire, told an undercover reporter that his £10,000 soundwave and light bed treatment caused “significant tumour cell death” in eight out of 10 patients with deep-seated tumours. He even suggested that patients with advanced cancer could in effect be cured, saying the proportion of “complete responses” in which a patient goes into remission was “slightly less than 10%”.
However, a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) panel concluded last week that Kenyon’s claims to an undercover Sunday Times reporter posing as the relative of a patient in December 2012 were not backed by good scientific evidence and could not be justified. It will rule at a later hearing whether his fitness to practice was impaired.
The case has exposed the failings of the regulators after repeated warnings from 2006 by experts and doctors that the clinic was making incorrect and misleading claims for cancer treatment for patients who were “very distressed and highly vulnerable”.
Kenyon provides a range of alternative therapies, including intravenous vitamin C treatment. He said he was once called by the royal household to advise on the health of the young Princes William and Harry. Kenyon also said he only ever acted in the best interests of his patients and many had responded very well to the sound and light treatment. The MPTS panel concluded that he was misguided rather than dishonest.
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Arabella Vanneck, a mother of five, was given the soundwave and light treatment, known as sono photo dynamic therapy (SPDT), at the Dove Clinic in December 2010 and January 2011. She died in October that year. Her family said she suffered appalling side effects after the treatment and are calling for better regulation of such clinics and more scrutiny of the claimed benefits of alternative therapies.
Vanneck, from Cambridge, had been successfully treated for breast cancer by the NHS in 2004 but it returned five years later. Joshua Vanneck, 60, her husband, said: “We were told, ‘We are not talking about survival any more, we are talking about palliative care.’ It was completely shocking.”
Arabella was given chemotherapy but was told in October 2010 that the cancer had spread to her brain and nothing could be done. The family had been researching experimental treatments and Arabella had a consultation with Kenyon in November 2010. He said his treatment might extend her life. Under the treatment, patients ingest chlorophyll-based drops, which it is claimed are activated by light and ultrasound.
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Vanessa Vanneck, 31, Arabella’s daughter, said: “I thought the idea of putting some chlorophyll in your mouth and then lying on a sun bed and that solving cancer sounded ridiculous but if that gave Mum hope we would support it. We considered it would be harmless.”
Arabella had two treatments in December 2010 and January 2011, costing £10,000. She was also prescribed steroids by Kenyon and cyclophosphamide, a chemotherapy drug. The family said her condition rapidly deteriorated after the treatment and were shocked she had been prescribed powerful drugs for an alternative therapy. She experienced severe muscle weakness and was soon confined to a wheelchair. She also suffered an eye infection that blinded her, and behavioural changes.
Vanessa said: “ We could not believe she was on a chemotherapy drug. She was so ill and just thought this really is awful and this is what dying of cancer must be like and it’s absolute hell. But when Mum did die of cancer it was quite dignified, she was not in so much pain. We believe it was the treatment that did this awful thing to her. It was horrendous.
“When things were going dramatically wrong and we contacted Kenyon he would say, ‘Oh, that’s happening. That’s a sign it is working.’ After she came off the drugs, she recovered from this awful period and became a lot better.”
The family said that Kenyon, who is not a trained oncologist, did not provide follow-up as Arabella’s condition deteriorated, did not give proper information about the drugs and did not warn them of the side effects. Kenyon said he provided detailed information on the treatment, including information on side effects, and the deterioration was caused by the cancer, not the drugs.
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Another patient who contacted The Sunday Times in February 2013 said he was on the verge of renal failure after being treated by Kenyon. He asked for his money back, which Kenyon refused. The patient has since died. Kenyon said the renal problems were caused by the cancer and not his treatment.
Regulators have been repeatedly warned the Dove Clinic was promoting SPDT with misleading information. Dr Harry Moseley, head of photobiology at Dundee University, wrote to the health regulators in January 2006, warning it was claiming the light treatment could reach deep-seated tumours, which was impossible.
Dr Colin Hopper, a head and neck surgeon at University College London Hospitals, said photodynamic therapy, which uses light alone, was a proven treatment for some cancers, but there was no good clinical evidence that SPDT worked.
Kenyon said he makes clear to patients the treatment is experimental and does not offer a cure. Kay Wells, 53, from Ashford, Surrey, is among his supporters. She was diagnosed with cancer two years ago and has spent £30,000 on treatment that she considers shrunk her tumours. Helen McCurdy, 61, from Gloucester, also considers she was treated effectively by Kenyon after being diagnosed with cancer in 2006.
Professor Fred Fändrich, of Kiel University in Germany, who gave evidence on Kenyon’s behalf at the MPTS hearing, said he had seen three of Kenyon’s patients who showed reduced tumour size after SPDT treatment and improvement. He said: “There is very solid pre-clinical data for SPDT and I don’t see why one should not give it a chance after conventional therapy.”
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Dan Poulter, a junior health minister, said: “Anyone considering unproven or unlicensed treatment in private clinics or overseas should seek advice through NHS Choices or by consulting their doctor.”
The Care Quality Commission said it had never found any evidence that the Dove Clinic promoted its treatments with misleading information.