Luigi Di Bella dies

Luigi Di Bella, a retired physiology professor who claimed to cure cancer with a combination of somatostatin, vitamins, retinoids, melatonin, and bromocriptine, died on July 1 st. Di Bella achieved notoriety in 1997 when a judge in Southern Italy ordered the local health authority to fund his treatment of a 2-year-old girl with brain cancer. The patient died about 7 months later, but the publicity attracted desperate patients from all over the world. Spurred by publicity, the Minister of Health ordered that clinical trials be carried out in public hospitals. The experimenters found that Di Bella treatment was not beneficial and in some cases had proved toxic.

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