Luigi di Bella

Luigi Di Bella (July 18, 1912 in Linguaglossa – July 1, 2003 in Modena) was an Italian medical doctor and physiology professor. In the late 1980s, he created a purported treatment known as "Di Bella therapy" for cancer that precipitated an international controversy.

Studies demonstrated that Di Bella's therapy for cancer is totally ineffective.[1][2][3][4] Medical experts consider his cancer therapy dangerous and unscientific.[4][5]

Education

Di Bella graduated in medicine at Bari University, and worked as an army doctor in Greece (1941-1943). In 1948, he became a professor of physiology at the University of Modena, where he had been working since 1939.

Studies

In 1963 Di Bella began his studies about some types of blood cancer. During the late 1980s, Di Bella developed a cocktail of drugs, vitamins and hormones (Melatonin, ACTH and Somatostatin) which he argued would be useful in fighting cancer. Following national exposure in 1997 and 1998, several cancer patients from around Italy traveled to his clinic seeking access to his "miracle cure". In 1998 Italian medical authorities (Ministero della salute), declared his treatment to be without scientific merit.[3] The final rejection of Di Bella's method was expressed in a letter (written on 30 December 2005) by the Chairman of the Board of Health, Mario Condorelli, to Health Minister Francesco Storace: "The working group of the Board of Health considers that it has no evidence of the effectiveness of "multitherapy Di Bella" and therefore does not recommend a new clinical trial; this could be not only ineffective but also harmful to the patients by denying them (or procrastinating) access to anti-cancer drugs of proven effectiveness.".[6]

According to the American Cancer Society: "Available scientific evidence does not support claims that Di Bella therapy is effective in treating cancer. It can cause serious and harmful side effects. ... [These] may include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, increased blood sugar levels, low blood pressure, sleepiness, and neurological symptoms."[7]

Physician Silvio Garattini described Di Bella's therapy for cancer as a "totally irrational association of drugs supported by absolutely no scientific evidence or data whatsoever."[4]

However according to Marcus Mullner (editorial registrar of BMJ) questions remain, given how the official research was done: "The researchers, who were funded by the Italian government, conducted 11 independent uncontrolled multicentre trials in which 386 patients with different types of advanced cancer were given Di Bella's multitherapy. They found no evidence of a clinically important response, and treatment was discontinued in 86% of the patients because of disease progression, toxicity, or death. Most clinicians will, we suspect, find this convincing evidence, but it is not perfect. We don't know whether the patients enrolled into these studies (all people who had asked for Di Bella's treatment) were representative, and we don't know whether controls would have done better or worse. The researchers should have conducted randomised controlled trials.... Even though some experts claim that phase II clinical trials are usually non comparative, and the authors argued that they were using these studies to assess whether randomised studies were warranted,the best way of avoiding bias is through randomising patients to intervention and control groups."[8]

New research shows complete and stable objective responses without cytolytic chemotherapy, in some cases even without surgery or radiotherapy, with a generalized improvement in quality of life and no significant and/or prolonged toxicity. The most important 5-year survival rate was 69.4% at stage IV cancer versus 26.3% reported by the National Cancer Institute.[9]

See also
  • Alternative cancer treatment

References
  1. Abbasi, Kamran. (1998). Di Bella's cure declared effective. The BMJ 317: 366.
  2. Simini, Bruno. (1998). Italian “wonder” cure for cancer is ineffective. The Lancet 352 (9123): 207.
  3. Italian Study Group for the Di Bella Multitherapy Trials (1999). "Evaluation of an unconventional cancer treatment (the Di Bella multitherapy): results of phase II trials in Italy". BMJ. 318 (7178): 224–228. doi:10.1136/bmj.318.7178.224. ISSN 0959-8138. PMC 27702. PMID 9915729.
  4. Bertelli, Gianfilippo. (2006). "DiBella Therapy Was Worthless". Quackwatch. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  5. "Luigi di Bella". The Guardian. Retrieved November 24, 2018.
  6. Mario Riccio, Gianna Milano, Storia di una morte opportuna. Il diario del medico che ha fatto la volontà di Welby, Sironi Editore, Milano, 2008, ISBN 88-518-0106-1, ISBN 978-88-518-0106-9
  7. "Di Bella Therapy". American Cancer Society. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  8. https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/318/7178/208.full.pdf
  9. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326087483_The_Synergism_of_Somatostatin_Melatonin_Vitamins_Prolactin_and_Estrogen_Inhibitors_Increased_Survival_Objective_Response_and_Performance_Status_In_297_Cases_of_Breast_Cancer
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