I am presently on a trip to Austria and Hungary. In Vienna, I will be speaking to members of the International Academy for Holistic Medicine (Wiener Internationale Akademie für Ganzheitsmedizin) and also meeting with CAM doctors on a variety of topics. My host in Vienna is Ralf Kleef, MD, who directs the Institute for Heat and Immune Therapy (Institut für Wärme- und Immuntherapie), a major destination in Vienna for hyperthermia treatment.

In Budapest I will be meeting with Dr. Mate Hidvegi, originator of the fermented wheat germ product called Avemar®. I will also visit with Tibor Bakacs, MD, PhD, DS and his wife, Eva Bakacs, MD. Tibor Bakacs has had a very distinguished career as chair of the Department of Immunology at the National Institute of Oncology in Budapest, where his research focused on the characterization of cytotoxic human lymphocyte subpopulations. He is currently at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Both Austria and Hungary have a long association with CAM cancer treatments. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, MD, PhD, was one of the founding fathers of the field who won the Nobel prize in 1937 for his isolation of vitamin C. It was my great honor and pleasure to be associated with him for seven years and to write his biography, Free Radical. Among his many other accomplishments, Prof. Bakacs translated my biography of Szent-Gyorgyi into Hungarian.

Vienna is a great center for medical learning. In particular, after the death of the Englishman John Beard in 1924, pancreatic enzyme treatment had a kind of "second birth" in Vienna. Max Wolf, who invented the famous Wobenzym formula, was a graduate of the University of Vienna. He settled in New York City in 1914 but in the 1920s and early 1930s frequently returned to Vienna, where he studied with two prominent cancer researchers at the University of Vienna (Alma Mater Rudolphina) Hospital, Prof. Ernst Freund (1863-1946), and his long-time associate, Dr. Gisa Kaminer (1883-1941). One aspect of their work was elucidation of a factor in the blood of cancer patients that seemingly allowed tumors to grow. They believed that this factor could be overcome by the administration of enzymes. Being Jewish, they both had to flee Austria after the Nazi take-over and died in England shortly thereafter.

But after World War II, important research on the use of pancreatic enzymes was done by Heinrich Wrba, MD (1922-2001), at the Institute of Cancer Research, University of Vienna. Prof. Wrba stated that while "the efficiency of this substance is indubitable," an over-dosage "is not possible and side reactions with absolute certainty do not exist."

I am excited about the possibilities for strengthening American ties not just with German CAM clinics, but with similar institutions in Austria and Hungary as well. It should be a major step forward for international patients seeking the best cancer treatment regardless of where that treatment originates.

--Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.