Atlas›Domain XII · Complementary, energy & biofield›Guide 160
Guide XII-160

Insulin potentiation therapy

Donato Pérez García, Steven G. Ayre1932Mexico
A 27 · L 61 · M 1211 interventions in the Trinity explorer
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

Historical account. There is no legitimate way for a psychotherapist to practise or refer for insulin potentiation therapy (IPT). This guide describes what it was and how it is still sold so you can recognise it, and how to support clients and families who are considering it, are using it, or were harmed by it. Nothing here presents IPT as a treatment for cancer or any other disease. In the sources, IPT and its variants are unproven and investigational, and they carry documented risks of hypoglycaemia and of ineffective cancer treatment.

1. What it was

Version followed: the family line runs from Donato Pérez García in Mexico (IPT) through the later "Insulin Potentiation Targeted Low Dose" (IPTLD) brand, and in the US through the 1986 "Insulin Potentiation Therapy" name used by Steven G. Ayre. Each is described as the regulators, cancer charities and integrative-oncology reference services cited here report it. [source: MSK About Herbs; CAM-Cancer/NAFKAM; CANSA 2021]

Origins and lineage.

  • Donato Pérez García, a Mexican physician, developed the approach in the 1930s. CANSA dates it to 1932 in Mexico City. It was first used for syphilis, then for arthritis, asthma and colitis. From 1947 he applied it to cancer and reported good results, but these were never published in peer-reviewed journals. [source: CAM-Cancer/NAFKAM; CANSA 2021; MSK]
  • CANSA reports that his son, Donato Pérez García Bellón, and his grandson, Donato Pérez García Jr., continued the practice. [source: CANSA 2021]
  • A 1986 concept paper by Ayre, Pérez García Bellón and Pérez García appeared in Medical Hypotheses, which is described as a non-peer-reviewed journal. [source: CAM-Cancer/NAFKAM ref. 1; Wikipedia, [uncertain: secondary, unverified]]
  • CANSA identifies Stephen (Steven) Ayre, MD, of Burr Ridge, Illinois, as the leading US proponent. It says he coined the name in 1986 and began practising IPT in the US in 1997. [source: CANSA 2021]
  • CANSA reports that Ayre presented to an NIH cancer advisory panel in 2000. It also reports that in 2001 the FDA ordered the review board that had approved his proposed study to shut down after finding it was run improperly, and that the study never took place. CANSA suggests the board and study may have helped patients believe they were in a legitimate trial. [source: CANSA 2021; claim attributed to CANSA, primary FDA record [uncertain: not verified]]

Spread and commerce.

  • Training and spread. CANSA reports that practitioners were trained in two-day courses. A 2003 list of 69 US practitioners showed about half also offering chelation therapy (see 136). [source: CANSA 2021]
  • IPTLD. A 2013 press release from Angeles Health International announced IPTLD at Hospital Angeles Tijuana. It described IPTLD as developed by three generations of the Pérez García family and said 451 practitioners worldwide had been certified, all trained by Donato Pérez. The same release bundled IPTLD with a "Functional Oncology" programme that included detoxification, nutrition and immune-support phases. [source: PR Newswire 2013]
  • Clinics and staffing. IPT is delivered mainly in specialised private clinics, some in medical tourism destinations, using off-label approved chemotherapy drugs. Some clinics are not run or staffed by oncologists. [source: MSK; CAM-Cancer/NAFKAM]

Stated rationale (as promoters gave it).

Promoters made these claims:

  • Cancer cells consume more sugar and carry far more insulin (or IGF) receptors than normal cells.
  • Insulin "opens the pores" of cells, so chemotherapy enters tumour cells preferentially.
  • Insulin pushes tumour cells into a vulnerable dividing phase.
  • Therefore a small fraction of the standard chemotherapy dose can kill cancer "with few or no side effects".

[source: MSK; CAM-Cancer/NAFKAM; CANSA 2021]

MSK states that IPT "has not been shown to treat or prevent cancer". CAM-Cancer concludes it is impossible to judge its efficacy and safety from the little that has been published. A US insurer classifies it as investigational. [source: MSK; CAM-Cancer/NAFKAM; Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts policy 532]

How it was sold to patients and referrers.

  • Promoters stressed gentleness: low-dose, "targeted", no hair loss or nausea, and treatment that is "at least as good as" conventional chemotherapy. [source: Medical Board of California accusation, as reproduced by Quackwatch; CANSA 2021]
  • They cited "FDA-approved drugs" and patents as signs of legitimacy. CANSA notes that a patent assesses originality, not effectiveness. [source: CANSA 2021]
  • They made dramatic, unsourced survival claims. [source: PR Newswire 2013]
  • They appealed especially to people afraid of chemotherapy side effects, and to people whose conventional treatment had failed. [source: CANSA 2021]
  • Costs reported. CANSA reported (for 2003) intensive courses costing many thousands of US dollars over a few weeks, followed by ongoing "home maintenance" charges. Patients pay out of pocket because insurers classify IPT as investigational. [source: CANSA 2021; BCBSMA 532]

2. What was actually done

The following is a typical course pieced together from regulator, charity and reference descriptions. Administration is described qualitatively only. [source: CANSA 2021; MSK; CAM-Cancer/NAFKAM; Medical Board of California accusation]

  1. Selection and assessment. Patients came via websites, word of mouth, cancer forums and medical-tourism agents. Many had advanced disease, were afraid of standard chemotherapy, or had been told conventional options were exhausted. [source: CANSA 2021; PR Newswire 2013]
    • Some clinics offered "chemosensitivity" testing of blood or tumour samples to choose drugs. [source: PR Newswire 2013]
    • The California board found inadequate laboratory monitoring before and between treatments in the case it prosecuted. [source: Medical Board of California]
  2. Consent. The California accusation centred on website claims that side effects were minimal and that results matched conventional chemotherapy. The board found these false, misleading or unsupported, including against the clinic's own observations such as a patient losing clumps of hair. [source: Medical Board of California]
    • CANSA describes a US "trial" approved by a review board that the FDA later shut down. Patients may have believed they were in a legitimate study. [source: CANSA 2021]
  3. Setting and staff. Treatment took place in private offices or clinics, often outside oncology services, with off-label drugs. CANSA reports minimal or no resuscitation equipment or training in many settings. [source: CANSA 2021; MSK]
  4. Session structure (qualitative). The patient is given insulin to induce hypoglycaemia deliberately. Chemotherapy drugs are then injected at a small fraction of proven doses, sometimes as mixtures of several agents not validated for that tumour type. Sugar is then given to reverse the hypoglycaemia. [source: CANSA 2021; CAM-Cancer/NAFKAM; Wikipedia [uncertain: secondary, unverified]]
    • Patients experience sweating, shakiness, hunger, headache, confusion or drowsiness during the low-sugar phase. [source: MSK (headache, delirium)]
  5. Frequency and course. Treatments were given as repeated sessions over weeks, often an "intensive" phase followed by ongoing "maintenance". [source: CANSA 2021; CAM-Cancer/NAFKAM]
  6. Bundled components. These included "natural medicine", high-dose vitamins (including intravenous vitamin C), detoxification, special diets, immune-support and hormone treatments, and chelation at some sites. [source: PR Newswire 2013; CANSA 2021; NSW tribunal report in Goulburn Post 2014; Medical Board of California commentary]
  7. Judging "progress". Progress was judged by tumour markers, scans read by the clinic, or how the patient felt. Gentleness of treatment was presented as evidence it was working. [source: CAM-Cancer/NAFKAM case reports; [synthesis] for the pattern]
  8. Non-response. Non-response led to further sessions, longer maintenance or added components rather than referral back to oncology. [source: CANSA 2021 costs and maintenance description; [synthesis]]

Named variants.

  • IPT (Pérez García / Ayre).
  • IPTLD, "Insulin Potentiation Targeted Low Dose", sometimes combined with "Functional Oncology" programmes.
  • IPT offered for non-cancer conditions (chronic degenerative disease, infections, arthritis).

[source: CANSA 2021; PR Newswire 2013]

3. How it caused harm

  • Hypoglycaemia. Deliberately driving blood glucose down can cause confusion, delirium, seizures, coma, shock, stroke and death, especially if too much insulin is given. CANSA calls the method potentially lethal. [source: CANSA 2021; MSK]
    • The margin for error is small, and the brain is especially vulnerable to low glucose. [source: Gorski, Respectful Insolence 2013, secondary]
    • Risk rises in people taking diabetes medicines (additive effect). Beta-blockers can mask the warning symptoms. Alcohol and some antibiotics can deepen hypoglycaemia. [source: MSK; CAM-Cancer/NAFKAM]
    • IPT in pregnancy may harm the fetus. [source: CAM-Cancer/NAFKAM]
  • Ineffective cancer treatment. Chemotherapy at a small fraction of proven doses has no demonstrated anticancer effect equivalent to standard treatment, and low doses may promote drug resistance. CAM-Cancer and an expert in an Australian tribunal case raised both concerns. [source: CAM-Cancer/NAFKAM; Goulburn Post 2014]
    • The main risk is dying of a treatable cancer because the treatment does not work. [source: Wikipedia summary of Quackwatch [uncertain: secondary, unverified]]
    • In a US national-database study, people who used alternative medicine alone for curable cancers had about 2.5 times the risk of death of matched patients who had conventional treatment. That study did not name the specific therapies used. [source: Johnson et al. 2018, JNCI]
  • Possible tumour promotion. Insulin acts as a growth factor and raises circulating IGF-I. Rising evidence links high insulin with poorer outcomes in some cancers, though the clinical significance is unclear. [source: CAM-Cancer/NAFKAM; CANSA 2021]
  • Chemotherapy toxicity without oncology monitoring. In the California case, a patient with metastatic melanoma was given repeated low-dose chemotherapy despite mouth sores and other complaints. She was then hospitalised with a dangerously low white-cell count and painful mucositis, and her records were reported missing. The board found gross negligence, repeated negligent acts, inadequate records and false advertising, and revoked the licence of Les Breitman, MD, in 2012. [source: Medical Board of California accusation and outcome as reproduced by Quackwatch]
  • Unsupervised administration by non-oncologists. In New South Wales, the Civil and Administrative Tribunal found in 2014 that a registered nurse had given IPT to a seriously ill man with testicular cancer at her beauty clinic. It also found she gave alternative therapies to cancer patients without medical supervision, and that she injected a chemotherapy drug and high-dose vitamins into a family member with treatable lymphoma, who later died. The tribunal found the conduct serious enough to justify suspension or cancellation of her registration. An expert described IPT as inherently dangerous. [source: Goulburn Post 2014]
  • Psychological and social harm [synthesis, drawn from the documented pattern above]:
    • false hope followed by sudden deterioration;
    • regret and guilt in patients and in family members who encouraged or paid for treatment;
    • family conflict over treatment choices;
    • mistrust of oncology;
    • loss of time that could have gone to palliative care and leave-taking.
  • Financial harm. Out-of-pocket courses and maintenance charges, often with travel costs. [source: CANSA 2021; BCBSMA 532]
  • Most at risk.
    • People with curable cancers who decline or delay standard treatment.
    • People with advanced disease who are desperate.
    • People with diabetes or on glucose-lowering drugs or beta-blockers.
    • Pregnant women.
    • Those treated in settings without resuscitation capacity.
    • Families with strong distrust of conventional medicine.
    [source: CANSA 2021; MSK; CAM-Cancer/NAFKAM; Johnson et al. 2018]

4. Recognising it today

Names and rebrandings

  • "Insulin potentiation therapy", "IPT", "IPTLD" and "Insulin Potentiation Targeted Low Dose" (chemotherapy). [source: CANSA 2021; PR Newswire 2013]
  • "Low-dose", "targeted low-dose" or "gentle" chemotherapy offered by an integrative, functional or anti-ageing clinic rather than by an oncology team. [source: Medical Board of California; PR Newswire 2013]
  • Packaging inside a branded multi-step programme, such as "Functional Oncology", detox, immune or nutrition phases, or "natural medicine to help chemo target cancer cells". [source: PR Newswire 2013]
  • The same method offered for non-cancer conditions such as arthritis, infections or "chronic degenerative disease". [source: CANSA 2021]

Phrases and rationales clients may repeat

These are typical claims as sources report them; the wording below is illustrative.

  • "Insulin opens the cancer cells so the chemo goes straight in." "Cancer has twenty times more insulin receptors." "Sugar feeds cancer, so we use it as a Trojan horse." [source: CANSA 2021; MSK]
  • Claims of a tiny fraction of the usual dose with none of the side effects. "No hair loss, no nausea." "As good as conventional chemo, only kinder." [source: MSK; Medical Board of California]
  • "All the drugs are FDA-approved" or "It's patented." [source: CANSA 2021]
  • "Developed over 80 years by three generations of doctors." "Hundreds of certified practitioners worldwide." [source: PR Newswire 2013]
  • "We test your blood to find which chemo your cancer is sensitive to." [source: PR Newswire 2013]
  • Survival statistics with no source, testimonials, and "spectacular results". [source: PR Newswire 2013]

Red flags in a clinic, colleague or service

  • Who gives the chemotherapy. It is given outside an oncology unit, by a clinic not run by oncologists, or by a nurse, naturopath, anti-ageing or aesthetic practice. [source: MSK; Goulburn Post 2014; Medical Board of California]
  • Deliberate hypoglycaemia. Insulin is given to people without diabetes, or the clinic describes "bringing sugar down" before treatment. MSK advises against IPT for people without diabetes. [source: MSK]
  • Safety and records. Little laboratory monitoring, no resuscitation capacity, records unavailable on request. [source: Medical Board of California; CANSA 2021]
  • Payment and trials. Upfront payment for packages, "maintenance" sessions, insurance non-coverage, or a "trial" the patient pays to join. [source: CANSA 2021; BCBSMA 532]
  • Relationship to the oncologist. Advice to delay or avoid the oncologist, or to keep the clinic's treatment secret from them. [synthesis]
  • Bundled extras. Chelation, high-dose intravenous vitamins or hormone treatments offered alongside. [source: CANSA 2021; Goulburn Post 2014; Medical Board of California commentary]
  • Referral pressure. A colleague, coach or wellness provider receives referral fees, shares the clinic's materials, or tells a client their mindset or a "cleanse" will make the treatment work. [synthesis]

How legitimate practice differs

  • Standard chemotherapy is prescribed and monitored by an oncology team. Doses and schedules are set by trial evidence for the specific cancer, with blood counts checked between cycles. [synthesis; contrast drawn from the California board findings]
  • Integrative oncology uses supportive therapies (for example, for symptoms and wellbeing) alongside standard treatment, never instead of it. See entry 172. [source: MSK framing of IPT as non-standard; [synthesis]]
  • Low-dose chemotherapy schedules in oncology research are tested in registered trials within oncology services, with regulatory oversight. A trial registered on ClinicalTrials.gov does not by itself show that a treatment is legitimate or effective. [synthesis; [uncertain: not verified] for specific research schedules]
  • Insulin in diabetes care aims to keep blood glucose in a safe range. IPT deliberately induces hypoglycaemia. [source: MSK; CAM-Cancer/NAFKAM]

What the therapist may notice in session

[synthesis]

  • A client with a cancer diagnosis who has stopped attending oncology appointments.
  • A client planning travel for treatment, or crowdfunding for a clinic abroad.
  • Sudden optimism tied to a "gentle" programme.
  • Family members split over the choice.
  • After sessions, a client reporting shakiness, confusion or fainting.
  • Unexplained debts.

5. What to do instead and how to help those harmed

Your role. The therapist never performs, sells, recommends or arranges IPT. You also do not advise on chemotherapy, insulin or any medicine; those questions go to the oncologist, the diabetes team or the pharmacist.

What you do. Your work is psychological:

  • open, non-judgemental conversation;
  • decision support that respects autonomy;
  • coordination with the treating team, with consent;
  • support through grief, regret and family conflict;
  • safeguarding and reporting.

[synthesis, consistent with CANSA's advice to discuss IPT with the treating oncologist first]

Recommended alternatives to name.

  • Oncology care. Evidence-based treatment planned by the client's oncology team, or a second opinion at another cancer centre.
  • Palliative and supportive care. Early referral for symptoms and quality of life, at any stage.
  • Integrative oncology. Supportive therapies alongside standard treatment, never instead of it (entry 172).
  • Psycho-oncology. Psychological support for the client and family.

[source: CANSA 2021 (discuss with the treating physician); Johnson et al. 2018 (communication between patient and care team); [synthesis] for the list]

5.1 Asking routinely and without judgement

  • Purpose. To learn early whether a client with cancer (or a family member) is considering or using IPT or a similar clinic, without shaming them into secrecy.
  • Steps.
    1. Ask every client with a serious illness, as part of routine review, about all treatments, including "anything outside the hospital".
    2. Use neutral curiosity.
    3. Record what the client says, in their words, with dates.
    4. Note whether the oncologist knows.
  • Example language (illustrative). "Many people look into other options alongside their cancer care. Is there anything you're considering or already doing that your oncology team may not know about?"
  • Watch for.
    • Hesitation or defensiveness, which suggests the client expects disapproval.
    • Signs it is working: disclosure increases over time, and the client brings brochures or questions to sessions.

[synthesis]

5.2 Exploring meaning, hopes and the explanatory model

  • Purpose. To understand what draws the client to IPT before any decision is discussed. Common draws include:
    • fear of chemotherapy side effects;
    • wanting control;
    • hope after being told options are limited;
    • distrust of medicine;
    • a family member's advocacy;
    • community or online forums.
  • Steps.
    1. Ask how they first heard of it and what they understand it does.
    2. Ask what it would mean if it worked, and if it did not.
    3. Reflect the underlying value, for example avoiding suffering, staying in charge, or not giving up.
    4. Separate the value from the specific clinic.
  • Example language (illustrative). "It sounds like what matters most is not going through what you saw your father go through with chemo. Can we look at the different ways that wish could be honoured?"
  • Watch for.
    • Hope that rests entirely on one clinic.
    • Statements that the oncologist "gave up" on them.
    • Signs it is working: the client can name their own priorities apart from the sales claims.

[synthesis]

5.3 Supporting an informed, values-based decision

  • Purpose. To help the client reach a decision that is their own and is made with accurate information from their medical team. The decision belongs to the client; coercion damages trust and drives secrecy.
  • Steps.
    1. Help the client list questions to take to the oncologist. For example:
      • What is my prognosis with and without standard treatment?
      • What would lower-dose chemotherapy mean for me?
      • What would happen if I had hypoglycaemia?
      • What palliative options exist?
    2. Suggest bringing a trusted person to the appointment.
    3. Encourage the client to ask any clinic for:
      • peer-reviewed outcome evidence;
      • who supervises treatment and what emergency equipment is on site;
      • full costs in writing;
      • whether records will be shared with their oncologist.
      These checks echo CANSA's advice to be sceptical of claims of breakthroughs and lower doses. [source: CANSA 2021]
    4. Revisit the decision over sessions. Check that the client's understanding comes from their own clinicians.
    5. If the client is an adult with capacity who still chooses IPT, keep the relationship open, encourage them to stay connected with oncology and palliative care, and plan how they will recognise when to seek help.
  • Example language (illustrative). "I'm not the person to judge the medical side. What I can do is help you get clear answers from your oncologist so that whatever you decide, you've decided it with the full picture."
  • Watch for.
    • Urgency or deadlines imposed by the clinic.
    • Pressure from relatives either way.
    • Signs it is working: the client asks the clinic and the oncologist the same questions and compares the answers calmly.

[synthesis; published decision aids [uncertain: not verified]]

5.4 Coordinating with the treating team

  • Purpose. Medical risks are serious and outside your scope; the oncologist, GP, diabetes team or palliative team must know. These risks include:
    • hypoglycaemia;
    • interactions with diabetes drugs or beta-blockers;
    • pregnancy;
    • chemotherapy toxicity without monitoring.
    [source: MSK; CAM-Cancer/NAFKAM]
  • Steps.
    1. Seek written consent to contact the treating physician.
    2. Share only what is needed: that the client is considering or receiving IPT and where.
    3. Ask the team how they want to be updated.
    4. Agree with the client what you will say.
    5. Document all of this.
  • Example language (illustrative). "Would you be willing for me to let Dr ___ know you're looking into this, so they can talk through the medical side with you? I'll tell you exactly what I'd say."
  • Watch for.
    • Refusal of consent. Respect it unless a safeguarding or imminent-risk threshold applies, and keep inviting.
    • Signs it is working: the client returns to oncology appointments and medical questions move to the right professionals.

[synthesis]

5.5 Responding to immediate medical risk

  • Purpose. To act if a client describes or shows signs of hypoglycaemia or chemotherapy toxicity after treatment. Warning signs include:
    • confusion, sweating, shakiness, drowsiness or fainting;
    • mouth sores, fever or signs of infection.
    [source: MSK; CANSA 2021; Medical Board of California]
  • Steps.
    1. If the client is confused, drowsy, unresponsive or seizing, call emergency services.
    2. If signs of toxicity or infection appear between treatments, urge same-day contact with the oncology team or an emergency department.
    3. Do not give medical instructions yourself.
    4. Record events.
  • Example language (illustrative). "What you're describing needs a doctor today. Can we call your oncology hotline together now?"
  • Watch for.
    • Minimisation ("the clinic said that's normal").
    • Lack of follow-up labs.

[synthesis]

5.6 Grief, regret and guilt after choosing IPT

  • Purpose. To support patients and bereaved relatives who feel they chose wrongly, paid for false hope, or lost time.
  • Steps.
    1. Assess for complicated grief, depression, trauma symptoms after hypoglycaemic or medical emergencies, and suicidal thinking, using standard risk assessment.
    2. Normalise decision-making under fear and uncertainty.
    3. Distinguish responsibility from blame. Name the role of misleading marketing, which regulators found false in the cases above.
    4. Use established grief and trauma approaches, such as grief-focused CBT or trauma-focused therapy where indicated.
    5. Help the client re-engage with palliative care if they are still ill.
  • Example language (illustrative). "You made the choice you made with the information and hope you had at the time. Some of that information was false, and that isn't your fault."
  • Watch for.
    • Rumination.
    • Self-punishment.
    • Anger turned on surviving family.
    • Shame that stops the client telling their oncologist.
    • Signs it is working: the client can speak about the decision without collapse and can make current care choices.

[synthesis; marketing findings from Medical Board of California]

5.7 Family conflict

  • Purpose. To manage splits where one relative champions IPT and another wants standard care, or where the patient and family disagree.
  • Steps.
    1. Offer a family meeting, with the patient's consent.
    2. Centre the patient's own values and capacity.
    3. Help each person voice their fear underneath their position.
    4. Agree shared tasks, such as attending oncology appointments together or a joint palliative-care conversation.
    5. After a death, address blame between relatives.
  • Example language (illustrative). "You both want the same thing: for her to live as long and as well as possible. Let's hear what she wants."
  • Watch for.
    • A relative who controls money, transport or information.
    • A patient deferring entirely to an advocate.
    • A family member who administers or pays for treatment against the patient's wishes. The NSW tribunal case involved a relative administering treatment. [source: Goulburn Post 2014]

[synthesis]

5.8 Financial harm

  • Purpose. IPT is self-funded and can involve costly packages and maintenance charges, so clients may face serious financial harm. [source: CANSA 2021; BCBSMA 532]
  • Steps.
    1. Ask about costs, loans, crowdfunding, and sales of property.
    2. Help the client get all costs in writing before agreeing.
    3. Signpost to financial counselling, consumer-protection or debt services.
    4. Where false advertising is suspected, include it in reports (5.10).
  • Example language (illustrative). "Before anything is signed, would it help to look at the full costs together and what they'd mean for you and your family?"
  • Watch for.
    • Pressure to pay upfront.
    • Escalating "maintenance".
    • Shame about money spent.

[synthesis]

5.9 Safeguarding

  • Purpose. To protect children and adults at risk.
  • Steps.
    1. Children. If a child with cancer is being given IPT or is being kept from effective medical treatment, follow your local child-protection procedure. Consult your safeguarding lead and the child's medical team promptly. Consider the child's assent and views, and parents' consent rights, within that procedure.
    2. Adults who may lack capacity, or who are under coercion or financial exploitation. Follow adult-safeguarding procedures.
    3. Adults with capacity. An informed refusal of standard treatment is not a safeguarding matter in itself. Keep supporting them and stay connected.
    4. Record your reasoning and consultations.
  • Example language (illustrative). "Because this involves your son's treatment, I need to talk with his medical team and our safeguarding lead. I'd like to do that with you, not behind your back."
  • Watch for.
    • Missed oncology appointments for a child.
    • Travel plans abroad for treatment.
    • A child's distress or confusion.

[synthesis; [uncertain: not verified] for jurisdiction-specific thresholds]

5.10 Reporting

  • Purpose. To report practitioners or clinics offering IPT dangerously or with false claims.
  • Steps. With client consent where possible, or under your own duty where risk requires, report to the right body:
    • The practitioner's licensing board. Medical and nursing boards have acted against IPT providers. The Medical Board of California revoked a licence. In New South Wales, the Health Care Complaints Commission prosecuted a nurse before the Civil and Administrative Tribunal. [source: Medical Board of California; Goulburn Post 2014]
    • Health-complaints commissions where they exist. [source: Goulburn Post 2014]
    • Advertising and consumer regulators for false claims. [synthesis; specific agencies [uncertain: not verified]]
    • The national medicines and devices regulator for off-label drug supply or improper research oversight. CANSA records FDA action against a review board. [source: CANSA 2021]
  • Example language (illustrative). "What happened to you may also be happening to others. Would you like help making a complaint to the medical board?"
  • Watch for.
    • Fear of retaliation, or of losing access to the clinic.
    • Document your own observations factually.

[synthesis]

5.11 Ethics and conflicts of interest

  • Never accept referral fees, sell products or courses, or share clinic marketing. Disclose any personal ties to clinics. Keep to your scope, and refer medical questions on. [synthesis; profession's ethics code not cited here [uncertain: not verified]]
  • Document conversations about alternative cancer treatment, your consultations, and any reports. [synthesis]

5.12 Handling problems in this work

All guidance in this section is [synthesis].

  • Client stops therapy when you raise concerns. Lead with curiosity, not information. Say explicitly that you will not try to talk them out of anything, and that your role is to help them get clear answers.
  • Client says, "My oncologist doesn't listen." Explore what happened. Offer to help prepare a question list. Suggest a second opinion at another cancer centre rather than leaving oncology altogether.
  • Family member asks you to "make" the patient choose standard care. Explain your role. Offer a family meeting centred on the patient's wishes.
  • Client is already mid-course and feels unwell. Use 5.5. Do not debate the treatment during a medical emergency.
  • Client wants you to read the clinic's brochure and "say if it's real". Read it with them to draw out the questions it raises. Route medical judgements to their oncologist.
  • Your own reactions. Use supervision to manage frustration, fear or rescue impulses, especially with families where a child is involved or after a client's death.

Sources

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