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Published with Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported Licensewww.cam-cancer.org/ Written by and the CAM-Cancer Consortium.K Krumwiede, Markus Horneber Updated January 29, 2015

Breuss Cancer CureAbstract and key pointsWhat is it?Does it work?Is it safe?

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Abstract and key pointsThe Breuss Cancer Cure includes a 42-day fast in combination with special vegetable juices and teas.There is no acceptable evidence to support the Breuss Cancer Cure as a cancer treatment.The fast could cause malnutrition and patients are advised to discontinue conventional cancertreatment.

The core of the Breuss Cancer Cure is a rigid diet, which consists of a 42-day fast in combination withspecial vegetable juices and teas. Additional recommendations are included, for instance, to avoid so-calledwater veins. According to Breusss theory, cancer requires solid food to survive in the body.

The claims of efficacy are not supported by acceptable evidence and there are no reliable scientific data tosupport the claimed mode of action.

It is likely that the recommended fast could be dangerous for cancer patients because there is a potential riskof general malnutrition. As Breuss bans conventional cancer treatment while patients undergo his treatment,there is a risk that patients will discontinue conventional treatment.

Scientific examinations of the benefits and dangers of Breuss Cancer Cure are lacking.

What is it?

Description

The core of the Breuss Cancer Cure is a rigid diet consisting of a 42-day fast in combination with specialvegetable juices and teas. Additional recommendations are included, for instance, to avoid so-called waterveins.

Rudolph Breuss was born in Austria in 1899. He first worked as an electrician, and later as a naturopath. Hedeveloped the Breuss Cancer Cure or Breuss Total Cancer Treatment. Breuss died in 1990.1-3 4

Ingredients, application and dosage

The treatment is described in three books written by Breuss, but it is not clear whether the publishers have1-3changed, added or left out original statements. For example, the English translation of Breuss book does notmention that he did not allow radiation treatment and injections concurrently with his treatment. Further2amendments were written by Thomar.5,6

Breuss rigidly stipulated that cancer patients are not allowed to drink or eat anything other than the juices andteas he recommended for a period for 42 days. He gave strict instructions about the preparation and ingestionof specific juices and teas. Juices include beetroot, carrots, celeriac, black radish and potatoes in cases wherethe patient has been diagnosed with cancer of the liver. All vegetables had to be organically grown andvegetable sediments were to be removed. The maximum ingested amount of juice was 500 ml per day.Breuss allotted three teas for all types of cancers: "sage tea", "kidney tea" and "cranesbill tea". "Sage tea"includes (sage), (St. Johns wort), (peppermint) andSalvia officinalis Hypericum perforatum Mentha piperita

(balm) in a specific ratio. The tea could be taken as desired. "Kidney tea" includesMelissa officinalishorsetail (balm), (stinging nettle), (knotgrass) and Equisetum arvense Urtica dioica Polygonum aviculare

(St. Johns wort), at a special ratio and to be taken only for the first three weeks. "Hypericum perforatumCranesbill tea" includes (red cranesbill) and only one half cup of cold tea should beGeranium robertianumingested per day. For special types of cancer, additional teas are recommended. The use of sugar was notpermitted.

In cases of leukemia, patients would have to drink the recommended teas and juices, but could eat anythingelse with the exception of meat soup, beef, pork and reheated food (the English translation mentions beef1,3soup, pork, chemical food additives, burnt food and fats ).2

Breuss further stipulated that patients should not start the Breuss Cancer Cure immediately after surgery, butshould wait for at least two to five months. No concurrent treatments were permitted during the treatment. Herecommended fresh air and exercise, and smoking should be stopped. Furthermore, the patient should not belying above so-called water veins (sources of ground radiation) and should avoid moth powder,insecticides, aerosol cans or air fresheners in the house. Breuss stated that patients who had completed theBreuss Cancer Cure should never again eat reheated food, but could be allowed to gradually start eatingsalt-reduced, light food, and should drink approximately 60 ml of the vegetable juice per day for another twoto four weeks.

Additional instructions were added in 1987 : patients should have one or two bowls of onion broth a day1,2(only the liquid). To support the heart, patients should take 20 to 40 drops of Crataegus oxyacantha(hawthorn) tincture. People with diabetes should continue insulin treatment.

Instructions published in 1990 : for substitution of calcium and potassium, patients should drink a tea made1from (plantain lance), (broad-leaved plantain), Plantago lanceolata Plantago major Cetraria islandica

(Iceland moss), (lungwort), (ground ivy), Pulmonaria officinalis Glechoma hederacea Verbascum thapsus(mullein) and (Meum mutellina herb). Patients with liver or gall bladder problemsLigusticum mutellinashould drink a broth of bean pods instead of onion broth.

Claims of efficacy

Breuss claimed that since 1950 he has successfully treated more than 2000 patients. He estimated that since1986, an additional 40 000 patients with cancer and other incurable diseases had been healed by the used ofhis methods. As proof he cited testimonials and letters of thanks written in the period from 1971 to 1985.1-3Breuss claimed that treatment failures could only occur if his instructions were not strictly adhered to. He1-3believed that about one million people could be healed, if the so-called cancer research and the orthodoxmedicine would be with me instead against me.1

Mechanism of action/alleged indications

Breuss postulated that cancer cells live exclusively on solid foods (the only patients that died werepatients that were given something to eat.). He claimed that cancer cells are not able to feed on vegetable1-3juices and cancer cells die if patients only ingest vegetable juices and special teas for a period of 42 days.Breuss quoted Bruno Vornarburg who said that the carcinogenic process feeds on proteins and that a tumorcan not continue to exist if the patient lives on a protein-free diet. Furthermore, Breuss claimed that after a1-3protein-free diet, the body attacks and destroys the tumor like surgery without a knife. Breuss believed hisintervention was not only a cure, but that it also served preventively against cancer.1-3

Prevalence of use

Although the book the Breuss Cancer Cure was translated into Chinese, Croatian, English, French, Greek,Italian, Polish, Russian, Serbian and Spanish, no exact data on prevalence of use have been published.1,2Internet searches located several patients reporting their experiences with the treatment, and an Internet6-9homepage reported 122583 visitors between August 2004 and the beginning of December 2010. The6Internet search also identified one physician and two spa hotels offering the Breuss treatment.10 11

Costs

The juices are produced and promoted by Biotta INC. and can be purchased in health food stores,12drugstores and over the internet. The required 21 litres cost 131 or more. Costs for teas are additional. Spahotels offer the Breuss Cancer Cure for around 2600 to 4700, or more.10

Does it work?

Clinical trials

There is only one small clinical trial involving eight cancer patients with metastatic diseases that hasinvestigated the Breuss Cancer Cure. The study did not use a control group. The authors reported two13complete, and two partial remissions and that the patients felt better than expected during the intervention andhad experienced less pain. During the trial, one patient died, and two died shortly after completion of thetrial. The authors did not attribute the deaths to the intervention. It was claimed that if that trial had beendesigned as a conventional phase-1-study, it would produce results showing Breuss to be an effective

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treatment with minor toxicity for patients with advanced cancer. No further studies have been published.13Thomar is currently looking for people who have reported success with the "Breuss Cancer Cure", in order tocarry out a retrospective study.6

Case reports

Jungi stated, without presenting data, that tumors usually become smaller during a fast but after resuming theconsumption of nutrition, grow more quickly. Pfortmueller put forward similar statements, but without14providing any empirical data.15

The case reports found on the Internet, lack valid documentation.6-9

Animal studies

Caloric restriction (undernutrition without malnutrition) delays the incidence of various types of tumours anddecreases their growth. Tumours can be sensitive and resistant to dietary restriction. Starvation16-29 30(fasting) is a form of malnutrition. It has no beneficial effects on tumor growth, but tumor growth might bestimulated during an acute fast.31-41

Is Breuss Cancer Cure safe?There is a lack of published information regarding the safety of the Breuss cancer treatment. Senn and Jungireported on several patients in whom the Breuss cure had led to a rapid and dangerous cachexia. Douwes et42al. observed weight-loss in the range from 9 and 16 kg. This reported malnutrition constitutes a substantial13risk involved with the Breuss method. Malnutrition has a known negative effect on morbidity, mortality,hospital stay and quality of life for cancer patients. The Schweizerische Gesellschaft fr43 44 45Onkologie and the Schweizerische Krebsliga published documentation on the Breuss cure in which theyreferred to the publication of Senn and Jungi and advised against the method. As Breuss forbade any46 47conventional cancer treatments, patients could potentially be turned away from possibly beneficialconventional cancer treatments.

Citation

K Krumwiede, Markus Horneber , CAM-Cancer Consortium. Breuss Cancer Cure [online document]. . January 29, 2015.http://www.cam-cancer.org/CAM-Summaries/Dietary-approaches/Breuss-Cancer-Cure

Document history

Assessed as up to date in January 2015 by Barbara Wider.Assessed as up to date in August 2013 by Barbara Wider.Last updated in by March 2012 by Karl Krumwiede.Updated and revised in January 2011 by Karl Krumwiede.Fully updated and revised in October 2009 by Karl Krumwiede and Markus Horneber.Summary first published in November 2005, authored by Karl Krumwiede and Markus Horneber.

References

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