BOTHELL — A naturopathic physician here whose license was suspended by the state can apply to have it reinstated next year, but he also will have to pay a $5,000 fine, refund $180,750 to cancer patients and remain on probation for at least eight years.
John A. Catanzaro can apply to have his license reissued on Jan. 29, according to an agreement with the state Department of Health. Catanzaro said he hopes to begin seeing patients again in February.
The settlement allows the state agency to make unannounced visits to his clinic for as long as Catanzaro remains on probation and to review clinic records to ensure appropriate patient billing.
Through the agreement with the state, Catanzaro is acknowledging fault, said his attorney Rodney Moody.
“The bottom line is he has reached this agreement with the Department of Health which will allow him to have his license back,” Moody said. “It will allow him to get back into practice and hopefully see the patients he was seeing previously.”
Catanzaro is the medical director of HWIFC Cancer Research Group and the Health and Wellness Institute of Integrative Medicine and Cancer Treatment.
It was the work of the research group, a nonprofit started in 2007, that brought the clinic to the attention of the health department’s Board of Naturopathy, which licenses and investigates complaints against naturopaths.
In January, it suspended Catanzaro’s license, saying he had administered unapproved, experimental cancer vaccines to patients.
Documents outlining the reasons for the license suspension said Catanzaro developed a treatment for individual patients called an autologous peptide and whole-cell-based vaccine, made from each patient’s own body tissue, blood and serum, to help battle cancer.
A document outlining the state’s case against Catanzaro said that he injected cancer patients, who are at higher risk for infection and death, with a vaccine without any information to demonstrate its safety. The failure to collect information while conducting research on patients “is unethical and lowers the standing of the profession,” the state said.
Catanzaro said no patients were harmed by the vaccine and, in fact, some were helped. “I never offered a false hope in saying this would cure their cancer,” he said in an interview this week. “It’s not preying upon vulnerable cancer patients.”
As part of the settlement agreement, Catanzaro, as well as all naturopathic physicians employed at the clinic, are barred from cancer research and from giving investigational drugs or the autologous cancer vaccine for the duration of Catanzaro’s probation. Catanzaro must work with a medical doctor or osteopathic physician when treating cancer patients, it says.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
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