Fai th i n research:

prakash
i nj ect_
i ng the drug i nto a mouse to
assess its effects, which has
made other
yaids
shun him
in seven days. I am sure he can cure
cancer."
The worl d of medi cal sci ence
wants to make sure that he can. The
CCRAS, an autonomous
body under
the Union health ministry, after much
del i ber at i on
and per suasi on
bv
Prakash sanctioned
him a Rs 7 lakfi
project
last month to studythe effect
of his metal-based
formulations
in
pat i ent s
of acut e pr omyel ocyt i c
leukaemia.
The patients
selected for the one_
year
study will have a confirmed
dias_
nosis backed by blood and bone mai_
row tests. Monitoring
and analysis of
the data will be done-by
the Ali fndi;
Institute
of Medical
Sciences (AIIMSi
whi c.h wi l l depute a cancer spi ci al i si
tor the study. The tri al wi l l be done
under Prakash' s
supervi si on.
He wi l l
al so provi de
the detai l s of the tri al
drug and a CCMS official will study
i ts manufacturi nq process.
For Prakash
this is a step towards
gaining
recognition
from cancer spe_
c,ialists at home and abroad. It was
the dramatic
recovery
of five_year_
old Iqbal Bhan from
-blood
.in.".
that prompted
the international
medi_
c.al community
to sit up and take no_
tice. lqbal.had
been given
only a few
weeks to live by Dr Simon Meller of
th.e Royal Marsden
Hospital,
London,
when his father Arun Bhan iook him
to Prakash in India. That was about
ten years
ago, and for the last four
years
blood tests have shown no trace
of leukaemia.
.
Following
this sensational
case.
the London-based
Leukaemi a
Re_
year5h.
.Fund
(LRF)
sent a team,
headed
by Mel l er, to Indi a i n l 99l to
investigate
the treatment
and medi_
cinegiven
byPrakash.
The team, while
concluding
that the drug's curative
value could not be proved-,
cautioned
that i t contai ned
arseni c,
a poi son-
ous heavy metal.
Two years
later in an article in the
medi cal j our nal
Leukaemi a
and
lymphoma
Meller
and Dr Coraon
Piller, former
director
of the LRF, ex_
pressed
apprehensions
about poison_
ing
ny arsenic,
mercury and other
heavy.metals
used in
piakash's
po_
tion_s (Story
on page
36).
Prakash
brushes
away such fears
statingthat "the
metals
are processed
to render
them non-toxic
before be_
i ng admi ni stered
to pati ents' ..
Whi l e
al l opat h;
i n I ndi a and
Back
from
the
dead
RAJAN BABU,
32, a senior lecturer at the
palakkad
Engineering
College,
wqs-diagnosed
in February r 995 as having u.ui" pro*yeroc5rtic
reukaemia
(svltY.3
tvpe) at the caiicut Mediiai iolt"g".'Aft"ir"""iir
.o"i!",
or
gf
elnothgra.pyand
aJlopathic medicines he #as referred
to ih" ct rii'ti",
Medical College, Velloie- Bone Marrow iianiptant
"""iA;;1
b";;;;
because he had no matching dr;;;;;;;;i'ir"i's
siulings.
The alternative
suggestEd
at cMC *aJ trigtt dosE-chemotherapy,
wh ich.. h e took duri n g
iine-August 95. "rt wai-i,irtuairy
; i;;i;;;]r&i_
ment," he savs.
Even after this the doctors gave him only a 30 per
cent chance ol
s'rvival. In october
g5
he went t-o cMC again ior another course of hish
dos-e chemotherapy
using a aitterent coiluin.tior
tl J."nr]'H;
il;i,
Vetlore
ror more trian 60 d;v' ;a th" t';;iffii;;;#ii,l11ril,'.ili"r,i"
liver, lungs
and several
oth_e. o.gans. Th;i;;;i .;;i ;i'lh"-;ll;;ili.
treatment
was around Rs 7.b lakh] he says.
.
Babu recovered
enough to rejoin dutyin March 1996. But in Septem_
berhe sullered a retapselnd
tne aoctoi's ii V;il;;";;il;;iil;ffi];
be done. The doctors
told his *if. G;;th;, i ao"to, at the TB centre in
rs wue \reerna, a ooctor at tne l'ts centre in
Palakkad,
that he would not survive for more
than two months.
But then the father
of twoyoungchildren,
who had been given
only
two months to rive, is happy that t iis stil iii"e. He is no* *-noi,niiu"
anyone
else and teaches-for
two hours
"rr"ry
Auy u, uny
"tt "i;;;;il.
"My-students
cannot make out rfii ila;;iiuiaemia patient,,,he
savs.
He- feets a "smar
numbness
in tris legi;, whi.h- ;J;;;"lt"rr"Jii
gestedcould
be due to the heavy metars Ee *i" i"riirg.'bJ;hi,i
#i-o
it could also be because
oJ the hiih do;;
"t "rnott
.rupi. H" i" ,,.i,'iriiln
to attribute the "discomfort"
tdprakastr's
meaicln"'r:
.Th;;;;;;:
has not increased
after I restarted
on the taLteil'rre
says.
',And
it is slowly
going."
His faith in
prakash
is total.
:
V.M. RAJASEKHAR
THE WEEK I NOV, I 6, I 997