Ernesto Contreras (physician)
{{short description|Mexican physician}}
{{About|the Mexican medical physician|other uses|Ernesto Contreras (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox medical person
| name = Dr. Ernesto Contreras, Sr.
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| birth_name = Ernesto Contreras, Sr
| birth_date = {{birth date|1915|06|01}}
| birth_place = Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
| death_date = {{death date and age|2003|10|03|1915|06|01}}
| death_place = Baja California, Tijuana, Mexico
| nationality =
| citizenship = Mexico
| education = Military Medical School, Mexico City
General Practitioner, 1939
| occupation = Physician, researcher, hospital director, military, professor
| known_for =
| relations = {{plainlist|
- Rita Pulido (wife)
- Francisco Contreras (son)
current Director, President and Chairman of Oasis of Hope Hospital
}}
| signature =
| profession = Medical Doctor
| field = Cancer research
| work_institutions = Oasis of Hope Hospital
| specialism = Pediatric pathology
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| module2 = {{Infobox military person | embed = yes
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|allegiance = {{Nowrap|{{Flag|Mexico|1939|size=23px}}}}
|branch = 25px Mexican Army
|unit = 18th Army Air Forces Base Unit
|serviceyears = 1939–43
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}}
Ernesto Contreras (1915–2003) served as a Mexican medical doctor. He operated the Oasis of Hope Hospital in Tijuana for over 30 years, claiming to "treat" cancer patients with amygdalin (also called "laetrile" or, erroneously, "vitamin B17") which has been found completely ineffective. His practices have been widely condemned.
Contreras received post-graduate training at the Children's Hospital Boston in Boston. He served as the chief pathologist at the Army Hospital in Mexico City and was Professor of Histology and Pathology at the Mexican Army Medical School.
Controversial cancer treatment
About extreme terminal cancer cases, Contreras alleged: "The palliative action [the ability of laetrile to improve comfort of patient] is in about 60% of the cases. Frequently, enough to be significant, I see arrest of the disease or even regression in some 15% of the very advanced cases."Cancer News Journal, Jan./April, 1971, pp. 20. There is no evidence to support Contreras' statements.
Many of Contreras' patients came from the United States, where use of laetrile is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.{{cite journal |author=Herbert V |title=Laetrile: the cult of cyanide. Promoting poison for profit |journal=Am. J. Clin. Nutr. |volume=32 |issue=5 |pages=1121–58 |date=May 1979 |pmid=219680 |doi= 10.1093/ajcn/32.5.1121|url=http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=219680|doi-access=free }} Since the 1970s, the use of Laetrile to treat cancer has been described in the scientific literature as a canonical example of quackery and has never been shown to be effective in the treatment or prevention of cancer.{{cite journal |doi=10.1002/1097-0142(19840201)53:3+<815::AID-CNCR2820531334>3.0.CO;2-U |author=Lerner IJ |title=The whys of cancer quackery |journal=Cancer |volume=53 |issue=3 Suppl |pages=815–9 |date=February 1984 |pmid=6362828 |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |author=Nightingale SL |title=Laetrile: the regulatory challenge of an unproven remedy |journal=Public Health Rep |volume=99 |issue=4 |pages=333–8 |year=1984 |pmid=6431478 |pmc=1424606 }}
See also
References
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20051216201359/http://www.oasisofhope.com/dr_ernesto_contreras.html Oasis of Hope Hospital] - Biography of Ernesto Contreras.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Contreras, Ernesto}}
Category:Alternative cancer treatment advocates
Category:Harvard Medical School people
Category:Mexican military doctors