December, 1997--Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D. has been elected an Honorary Member of the German Society of Oncology (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Onkologie). The nomination was made by Josef Beuth, M.D. president of the Society, and approved unanimously by the Board of Directors. He is the first American in over 20 years to be so honored.
The appointment followed his speech to the November 1-2, 1997 meeting of the DGO in Baden-Baden. The topic of the lecture was the "Limitations of Chemotherapy." It coincided with the publication of his book, Questioning Chemotherapy, in Germany by Haug Verlag of Heidelberg. The speech critically examined the limitations of chemotherapy, especially in the treatment of advanced carcinomas.
The DGO was founded over 20 years ago by a small group of "alternative" oncologists led by Hans Nieper, M.D. (who introduced me at the meeting and also wrote the introduction to the German edition of Moss's book). Since 1994, the DGO has been headed by Dr. Beuth, a world-renowned expert on cancer immunotherapy. In particular, Dr. Beuth, a professor at the University of Cologne, has done pioneering work on the role of plant lectins, including those found in the popular mistletoe preparations such as Iscador. He has put the DGO on the firm footing of "scientific complementary oncology."
Today, the DGO has 500 physician members and a huge number of sympathizers, including nearly 20,000 members of the Society for Biological Cancer Treatment. Dr. Moss has been invited back to Germany for the October 31-November 1, 1998 meeting in order to be officially honored by the DGO and to celebrate this unusual membership.
Moss says that this historic appointment is not just personally gratifying to him but is a sign of the growing international cooperation in the fair evaluation of all cancer treatments.
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