Hydrazine, Cancer, the Internet, Isoniazid, and the Liver

• Hydrazine
• Internet
• Isoniazid
• Self medication
• Liver diseases

The ready availability of medical information on the Internet, the burgeoning role of complementary and alternative therapies in present-day health care, and the failure of government to regulate such therapies combine to make the report by Hainer and coworkers in this issue (1) a timely warning. The authors describe a 55-year-old man with squamous-cell carcinoma of the maxillary sinus who accessed an Internet Web site that proclaimed benefits from hydrazine sulfate for people with cancer. He purchased the chemical from a source identified by the Web site and, forsaking medical supervision, took it for 4 months before presenting with evidence of combined renal and liver toxicity. The patient ultimately died of these complications.

Liability issues are intriguing but are not the focus of this editorial. It is mildly reassuring, however, that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have jointly launched a campaign known as “Operation Cure” in an attempt to lessen the fallout from unsubstantiated claims on the Internet. According to one report (2), “Operation Cure” has identified more than 400 Web sites that make questionable claims about using certain products to treat serious diseases.

Both some reassurance and some cause for alarm can be found in the identity of the compound responsible for liver and kidney failure in the report by Hainer and coworkers. Hydrazine sulfate, although of uncertain benefit in the management of the type of cancer described in the case report, does at least have some support in the literature for its use by patients with cancer (3-5). Furthermore, hydrazine sulfate has garnered …