Dr. Moshe Frenkel, Associate Professor of Integrative Medicine and the Medical Director of the Integrative Medicine Program, Division of Cancer Medicine, Department of Palliative Care and Rehabilitation Medicine at The University of Texas M D Anderson Cancer Center, USA, undertook recently a week-long study of the Banerji Protocol of homoeopathic treatment at the Prasanta Banerji Homoeopathic Research Foundation (PBHRF).

Currently in charge of a multidisciplinary team offering consultation and treatment in the Center’s Integrative Medicine Clinic as well as The Place of Wellness to cancer patients who wish to integrate complementary and integrative medicine in their treatment, Dr. Frenkel is also involved in research. The main focus of his research activity is the rational integration of complementary medicine into the education and clinical practice of conventional medicine.

Worldwide, breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer after lung cancer , and the fifth most common cause of cancer death ; in India, studies reveal that breast cancer may soon replace cervical cancer as the most common type of cancer.

While The University of Texas M D Anderson Cancer Center offers treatment for every conceivable type of cancer, Dr. Frenkel said that the incidence of breast cancer has alarmingly been on the rise also in the USA. Laboratory experiments based on the Banerji Protocol have been successfully carried out at the Center for the treatment of breast cancer which will be an important aspect of the Center’s ongoing research collaboration with the PBHRF for the treatment of all types of cancer.

The objective of Dr. Frenkel’s visit was to acquire first hand knowledge of the Banerji Protocol of homoeopathic treatment in terms of its relevance to the Integrative Medicine Program of his Center. He said that the Banerji Protocol of homoeopathic treatment (based on the use of specific medicines, or their combinations, for specific diseases) was practical, a simplified mode of treatment, and easy to implement, with high percentages of success. Having met many cancer patients, and collected enough information about their treatment at PBHRF, Dr. Frenkel added that the Banerji Protocol of homoeopathic treatment has certainly proved its effectiveness to warrant serious study and research on a continuing basis, considering that a very high percentage of cancer patients in the USA now look for complementary modes of treatment.

The Columbia University in the USA has initiated an Integrative Therapies Program for Children with Cancer in its Division of Pediatric Oncology. Dr. Elena Ladas, MS, RD, Director, and Dr. Kara M. Kelly, MD, Medical Director of the Program and three others from the University were at PBHRF, Kolkata in November, 2007. They met more than 30 paediatric cancer patients , observed individual cases and interacted with Dr. Prasanta Banerji, Dr. Pratip Banerji and other senior doctors of PBHRF to get a first-hand perspective on the Banerji Protocol of homoeopathic treatment for cancer.

As a follow up to their visit, the PBHRF has prepared and submitted a Best Case Series of case studies on paediatric cancer, for submission to the National Cancer Institute, USA, for the subsequent initiation of clinical trials at Columbia University. In vivo and in vitro experiments with PBHRF medicines were also proposed to be initiated at the University.

PBHRF’s collaboration with Columbia University is continuing, with a meeting between Dr. Kelly and Dr. Prasanta Banerji at the University held on July 21 this year to discuss research projects in detail, and also arrangements for the review of original pathology slides, MRI and /or CT scans of each of the patients identified.

The alarming increase in the number of children afflicted with cancer in recent years has become a subject of serious concern internationally, and the observations of the Columbia University experts on their visit to PBHRF may be of interest to many : ” We are impressed by the quality of life of pediatric cancer patients following the sole use of homeopathic medicines, compared to the quality of life offered by chemotherapy , surgery and radiation”.

The recent heavy rains, with widespread flooding and waterlogging in rural, semi-urban, urban and metropolitan areas inevitably causing pools of stagnant water, cannot but expose people once again to risks of various mosquito-borne diseases like Japanese encephalitis, malaria (including malignant malaria), dengue, filaria and chikungunya.

In a country like India with its heat, humidity, and heavily populated and congested residential areas, often with open drains, the most that one can do to prevent these mosquito-borne diseases is

a)use bednets, or mosquito nets; and
b)‘eliminate’, as much as possible ., mosquito breeding sites— like water storage containers, flower pots, old oil drums and other objects where water can collect.

While, on the one hand, prevention is difficult, there is no specific treatment for dengue and Japanese encephalitis, with antibiotics being ineffective against viruses and no effective anti-viral drugs having been discovered. What makes the problem really serious is that dengue, Japanese encephalitis and malignant malaria, can be fatal.

Doctors of the PBHRF, especially Dr. Prasanta Banerji who has been in practice for over 50 years, have through their experience treated these fatal mosquito-borne diseases in Kolkata, several towns in rural and semi urban West Bengal where it runs clinics, and in Bihar, following the regimen given below:

Japanese encephalitis

(Japanese encephalitis is one of the several mosquito-borne viral diseases which can affect the central nervous system and cause severe complications and death. Most infected persons develop mild symptoms, or no symptoms at all. In people who develop a more severe disease, Japanese encephalitis usually starts as a flu-like illness, with fever, chills, tiredness, headache, nausea and vomiting. The illness can progress to serious infection of the brain (encephalitis) and can be fatal. Among the survivors, serious brain damage, including paralysis, may occur. There is no specific treatment for Japanese encephalitis, a seasonal disease the patterns of which vary with the rainy seasons.

Antibiotics are not effective against viruses, and no effective anti-viral drugs have been discovered. Care of patients centres on the treatment of symptoms and complications).

At the PBHRF, the use of Belladonna for the treatment for Japanese encephalitis was suggested, based on the Banerji Protocols.

The Banerji Protocols are a new method of treatment using homoeopathic medicines. Specific medicines are prescribed for specific diseases. Diseases are diagnosed using modern/state-of-the art methods. This is done because modern diagnostic approaches incorporate and help in the selection of medicines, so that specific medicines could be easily prescribed for specific diseases.

Belladonna 3 or 30 or 200, normally the third potency, 2 pills in pill no. 40, 3 doses a day.

Cuprum Metallicum 6, 2 pills in pill no. 40, 3 doses a day.

Malaria

Natrum Muriaticum 30c, 1 dose = 2 pills, pill no. 40, one dose every morning .
Chininum Sulph 3x, 1 dose = 1 grain powder, one dose twice daily.
Vitex Neg O, 1 dose = 5 drops in 2ml of water, one dose twice daily.

Dengue

Eupatorium perfoliatum O, 1 dose = 5 drops in 10ml of water, 4 times a day, alternated with Rhus Toxicodendron 30, 1 dose = 2 pills, pill no. 40.

The Foundation has also received enquiries from internationally well-known institutes for research collaborations with regard to the treatment of mosquito- borne diseases.

A three-member cancer support team from Spain concluded today their six-day study tour to Kolkata, undertaken to acquire first-hand knowledge of the Banerji protocol of homoeopathic treatment being offered at the Prasanta Banerji Homoeopathic Research Foundation (PBHRF). The team comprised clinical oncologist Dra. Natalia Eres and Dra. Montserrat Assens i Mampel –– both from Barcelona with backgrounds in homoeopathy and acupuncture, now working in Spain on a special project on cancer and homoeopathy, an important objective of which is to give support to cancer patients with complementary medicines and useful information — and Ms. Asuncion Pastor Caurtero from Valencia, the founder-member of www.ayudacancer.com, a very popular web portal for cancer support, which reaches out to a wide circle of cancer patients in Spain, as well as to Spanish-speaking people elsewhere in the world.

During their stay in Kolkata, the Spanish team interacted with cancer patients at PBHRF, studied their cases and had detailed discussions on the Banerji protocol of homoeopathic treatment of cancer with Dr. Prasanta Banerji, Founder & Managing Trustee and Dr. Pratip Banerji, Co-Founder and Dy. Managing Trustee . All three team members attached great importance to their visit to PBHRF to acquire first-hand knowledge about the Banerji protocol of homoeopathic treatment — Dra. Natalia Eres and Dra. Montserrat Assens i Mampel because it was an effective mode of cancer treatment without the use of chemotherapy and directly relevant to the special project on cancer and homoeopathy they were now working on , and Ms. Asuncion Pastor Caurtero because it would help her promote more effectively and widely, not only in Spain but to the entire Spanish-speaking world , the Banerji protocol of homoeopathic treatment through www. ayudacancer.com.

The visit of this Spanish team is an outcome of the tremendous response to Drs. Banerji’s presentation of a paper on the regression of brain tumours at a seminar specially organised for them in Madrid in April, 2007 by Ms. Asuncion Pastor Quartero of www. ayudacancer.com and others like Ms. Ana Jimenez and Ms. Julia Perez, as well as to the Banerji protocol of homoeopathic treatment through this web portal. It is also a prelude to an invitation to Drs. Banerji from the faculty of medicine of Sociedad Espanola de Medicina Homeopatica in Valladolid, Spain , where they will present a paper on the treatment of various types of cancer and other intractable diseases next month — May, 2008.

This year, Drs. Banerji have been inducted into the International Scientific Advisory Committee of the first International Virtual Congress of Biological and Natural Medicine in Spain where there has been in recent years encouraging response all around for the strengthening of PBHRF’s treatment support base.