The Krebiozen Hoax
How a Mysterious Cancer Drug Shook Organized Medicine
by Matthew C. Ehrlich (3 Fields Books)
This book is a history about Krebiozen, an alleged cure for cancer that was famous in the ’50s, the subject of protest and litigation in the ’60s, and faded to nothing in the ’70s as the grifters cashed out and got out. Central to the story is Doctor Andrew Ivy, a physiologist with polymath-like accomplishments, who was…well, what exactly was Ivy doing is a question that the author tries to get at.
Ivy was an advocate of Krebiozen and fought for its acceptance. (He was not its inventor.) Many of his contemporaries saw through it, including George Stoddard, the president of University of Illinois, where Ivy worked. Ivy would draw flack from organizations, including the AMA and FDA, over Krebiozen. He would draw support from a much wider base of individuals. And that is what makes this book so good.
The author explains this story in the context of a broader history, elevating the book to something other than an (admittedly fun) story of a con job over a failed nostrum. Unlike some hoaxes, the science is never there. Instead, Krebiozen gets tied into what we would now recognize as the culture wars, as well as the Chicago Machine, with a plotline driven by the rise of the administrative state and its successes, particularly the FDA, but also the distrust in the administrative state that inspired, by people in desperate health situations but also by politicians willing to use any fracture for votes.
And unlike many hoaxes, there is the frustrating figure of Ivy, a skeptic for other snake oil who bought into this one, who would often profess restraint while going along with the hype, and who, like Krebiozen itself, fades as opposed to blows up.
The book is great, in contention for best of the year for me. The writing is no-nonsense. The author has a good sense for how to level and layer detail, what to focus on, when, and how much, to make the reading both easy and comprehensive. The underlying research is detailed. The story has resonances in all manner of medical hoaxes – Theranos, the vaccine theory of autism, Ivermectin- while being distinct. The author draws useful comparisons to other scams and hoaxes enough to make the point and without overstating any argument. The book is light on conclusions, but that is due to the intractability of the problems, and the competing values of elites, anti-elites, the democratic process, and human suffering.
More than a book about a hoax, it is a book investigating the reasons hoaxes exist. With surprise appearances from Rachel Carlson, Gloria Swanson, and Vito Marzullo.
My thanks to the author, Matthew C. Ehrlich, for writing the book, and to the publisher, 3 Fields Books, for making the ARC available to me.
CITATION HEEDED 