In the late 1960s, Dr. William Donald Kelley, a dentist from Texas, developed his cancer protocol in response to being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He developed a plan and a strategy, healed himself and is still alive today. Considering the fact that medical science considers pancreatic cancer incurable, this was impressive, and word was getting out that Dr. Kelley was helping other cancer patients regain their health. He called his regime "metabolic ecology" reminding his patients that their lifestyles would need to change in response to the cancer. He believed that "the person who has the disease is treated, not the disease that has the person," (a very naturopathic principle, treat the whole person), and that the total person in his total environment must be taken in consideration when undertaking treatment. He also helped his patients see the more spiritual side of life, asking them to do a self-searching analysis, take an inventory of their lives, and eliminate negative beliefs, behavioral patterns, and emotions.

Dr. Kelley believed that cancer is often caused by the body's inability to digest protein due to a deficiency of proteolytic enzymes or to a diet too high in protein. He believed that cancer is an enzyme deficiency and a mineral deficiency disease. He classified the general populace into ten patterns of metabolic activity; vegetarian slow oxidizers at one end of the spectrum, with fast oxidizing carnivores at the other, and the various combinations therein. He developed a questionnaire with over 3,000 questions and analyzed the patient's answers, test results, etc. by computer. He told patients they had to eliminate altogether, pasteurized milk, peanuts, white flour and sugar, chlorinated water, and all processed foods. Dr. Kelley developed a line of 25 nutritional formulations for hard tumors (solid mass tumors) and 29 for soft tumors (leukemia, lymphoma, melanoma), but always individualized plans for patients according to their own ability to absorb and utilize nutrients.

The Kelley therapy is quite intensive and takes a lot of discipline. Diet is protein restricted, 70 % raw, emphasizing whole grains, fruits, vegetables, raw juices, sprouts, and proteolytic enzymes. Coffee enemas are taken to help the body detoxify and to eliminate toxic by-products of tumors as they dissolve. This regime is followed until the patient is cancer free for two consecutive years, and then can be adjusted to the patient's needs. As he told his patients, "accept the fact that you are afflicted with a symptom (cancer) and that recovery is possible." A healthful change in diet and lifestyle seems a small price to pay for your life.

Of course, as with other doctors and healers who have helped others, Dr. Kelley has had his share of persecution from the medical/dental establishment. He was prohibited by a restraining order to treat anything but dental disease, and a local district court made it illegal for him to distribute his self-published booklet, "One Answer To Cancer," which makes him the first and only scientist/practitioner in the history of this country to be prohibited by court decree from publishing. Although he appealed the decision to the United States Supreme Court, arguing that his First Amendment rights were being flagrantly violated, the ruling was upheld. His therapy was put on the American Cancer Society's Unproven Methods blacklist in 1971 where it remains today. However, Dr. Kelley's book is still available and can be purchased from a website on the Internet. (see references)

Enter, Dr. Gonzales. When he went to Texas in 1981 to interview and investigate Dr. Kelley, Dr. Gonzales was astonished to find case after case of appropriately diagnosed, advanced metastatic cancer patients who were healthy and active 5, 10, and 15 years after diagnosis. Kelley made all his records available, of over 10,000 patients, and encouraged Gonzales to contact any and all of them. An initial review of all records between 1970 and 1982 yielded 1,306 patients. Strict inclusion criteria for the study yielded finally 160 patients from which a representative 50 cases were chosen and presented in a 300-page manuscript detailing the study. Those fifty cases represented 25 different cancers. Median survival of this group of fifty patients, all of whom were given terminal or extremely poor prognosis status, was 10 years as of the date of the study.

As incredible as these results seemed, Dr. Gonzales, helped by his friend and mentor, Dr. Robert Good, past president of Sloan-Kettering Institute, decided to go a step further. Wanting a numerator/denominator study, Gonzales picked one type of cancer, in this case pancreatic. Perhaps because the 5 year survival rate by orthodox medicine is virtually 0%, and it was pancreatic cancer that Dr. Kelley obviously triumphed over, Gonzales searched and found 22 patients who had been treated by Dr. Kelley between 1974 and 1982. The 22 patients fell into three categories. Ten patients consulted with Kelley only once and never went on the protocol. All had died. Seven patients followed the protocol only partially and sporadically, as determined by interviews with family members, doctors, and records. These patients had all died. Five patients followed the protocol completely and achieved long-term remission, although one had died (of Alzheimer's disease) after 11.5 years of survival. The median survival rate of these five was 9 years at the time of the study.

Dr. Gonzales realized that even though Kelley's results were incredible, and in fact, unparalleled in medicine, they would not be recognized by mainstream medicine unless they could be independently reproduced. That was over ten years ago, research has been on-going, and Dr. Gonzales has been using Dr. Kelley's protocol with all of his cancer patients, with a few of his own modifications. He keeps very careful records, and since Dr. Kelley has retired, he has been monitoring many of his patients, all of whom are well and have resumed their lives. Dr. Gonzales states that 80% of the people are doing well on his therapy. Since most patients have been heavily treated by orthodox medicine (surgery, chemo, and radiation) and told they have two to three months to live before they come to him, these results are truly impressive. Here is an abridged version of Dr. Gonzales' therapeutic regime:

Dr. Gonzales' Protocol
1. Appropriate Diet - 10 Basic Diets with 94 variations, ranging from strict vegan vegetarian to red meat depending on the cancer and the patient.
2. Intensive nutritional support - depending on the individual's specific deficiencies; vitamins, minerals, trace elements, electrolytes, and amino acids are prescribed.
3. Protomorphogen (glandular) support - concentrates of raw beef organs and glands.
4. Digestive aids - hydrochloric acid, pepsin, and other concentrated enzymes.
5. Pancreatic enzyme therapy - proteolytic pancreatic enzymes are taken orally to attack and liquefy tumors
6. Detoxification - coffee enemas are used to help the body eliminate the large amount of toxins and waste products of tumors as they break down in the body.

In 1990, a life insurance company, Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Co., researched and evaluated Dr. Gonzales' results for four months, including site visits, interviews with patients, and close reviews of records.

(Quoted from Discoveries / Fall 1990.... ) "We have seen excellent outcomes with a pancreatic cancer (metastatic to the liver) diagnosed at Mayo Clinic. We have seen return to work for over two years in a case of metastatic melanoma previously operated on twice (unsuccessfully) at Memorial Sloan-Kettering. We have seen long term survival in terminal lung cancers. We also have two insureds under Dr. Gonzales' care, one of whom has come back from terminal ovarian cancer (two years ago) to the point where she is preparing to go back to work.... The other refused a bone marrow transplant after experiencing recurrence of Hodgkin's disease following three different regimens of chemotherapy and radiation that produced short term remissions. She has been on Dr. Gonzales' protocol for 15 months.

One of the attractive points of this therapy is cost. Total cost of the program runs about $5,000 to $6,000 per year for the first two years. At that point, a maintenance program is followed at much lesser cost. Supplements constitute 70% to 80% of the cost. There is generally no hospitalization involved. This is perhaps 10% of the cost we would expect to pay for a terminal cancer patient.

At this stage of our review of Dr. Gonzales' therapy, we can only say that every indication points toward successful replication of Kelley's astonishing results. We will continue to closely monitor his results.

At the conclusion of his manuscript, Dr. Gonzales stated that his hope was to have this particular nutritional therapy evaluated further under controlled clinical conditions in an academic setting. This has not happened. The approach is so unorthodox that although a lot of doctors in academic medicine now refer patients to Dr. Gonzales, no one is stepping forward to fund a clinical trial.

This is a prime example of an innovative therapy that merits evaluation, but is being ignored. As costly as cancer is to our industry, and in light of such promising and cost effective preliminary results, our industry should consider funding such a trial."