Dr. Harold W. Manner: The Man Who Cures Cancer

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PLOWBOY: They didn't even want to be associated with it?

DR. MANNER: Right. And they still don't. Peer pressure is a funny thing. I believe it's killing this country. We researchers are subjected to this pressure by what is called "peer review". Which means that if we want to get a grant-say, from a government agency-we submit our proposals and they're passed on to a group of our peers. Now, these men and women-these peers-have ideas about the directions they want research to take, and if it happens that the proposal leans another way. . . well, the grant is rejected. This has happened to even the giants in the field . . . researchers like Linus Pauling.

We also have to deal with the editorial boards of the medical journals. If a researcher's work happens to run against the grain of any of the peer reviewers on a medical journal, he will never get a paper-no matter how good printed in that publication. I could write the best paper on laetrile in the world, for example, and I know it wouldn't get into the Journal of the American Medical Association. Because of this pressure, I've been publishing in smaller journals lately . . . those that are, at least, willing to listen. It's funny, though: Over the years, I've had more than 50 reports printed in the front-line journals. If I were working on anything but laetrile I could publish my results anywhere.

PLOWBOY: Where does the financial support for your work come from?

DR. MANNER: When I began this project I knew that my options for backing were limited. I couldn't go to the pro laetrile forces for funds, because there would have been strings attached to the money. And, for the same reason, I couldn't ask for grants from the government associations.

So I went to the administration here at Loyola University which is, as you know, a private Jesuit school-and I presented the problem to the administrators. I don't know how they came up with the funds-no private school is in very good financial shape-but they said, "We'll support your work." And I bless them for that.

PLOWBOY: Has the publicity you've received-because you're experimenting with laetrile-been a problem?

DR. MANNER: No, not the publicity. But what does bother us is the constant harassment from the Food and Drug Administration. It simply isn't right that-in a free society-a fellow can be subjected to this sort of badgering when he's trying to get a job done.

PLOWBOY: How, specifically, has the FDA harassed you?

DR. MANNER: Let me explain one thing before I answer that: I possess the only key to the hard drug locker here at Loyola, and I hold hard drug and controlled substance licenses from both the state of Illinois and the United States government. These licenses give me access to such things as morphine and cocaine . . . because my credentials and my background have been thoroughly investigated. And I've never in my entire life carcinogens. We start our experiments with whatever is happening in an animal's body that causes a cancer to grow.

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