Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez’s clinical results

The doctor who treated his patients with natural integrative approaches

Nicholas Gonzalez was an American doctor who devoted his life to demonstrating that it is possible to accompany patients suffering from cancer, even at advanced stages, using entirely natural methods. Educated at the best universities, he could have pursued a prestigious conventional career. However, he chose a radically different path: that of scientifically validating a protocol based on pancreatic enzymes, individualized nutrition, and detoxification. His clinical results, documented over nearly three decades, demonstrated that a natural approach can surpass conventional treatments for certain cancers considered incurable. His legacy continues to inspire practitioners who seek methods that respect the body and its innate capacity for regeneration.

1. A conventional doctor converted to natural approaches

Nicholas Gonzalez was far from being a fringe practitioner without solid medical training. A graduate of Cornell University, he completed his postdoctoral training at the prestigious Vanderbilt University. His trajectory could have led him to a traditional career in oncology. However, in 1981, during his second year of medical school, an event radically changed his path: the discovery of William Kelley’s work.

In the 1960s, this dentist had developed a nutritional protocol based on pancreatic enzymes to treat his own metastatic pancreatic cancer. While conventional medicine gave him two months to live, Kelley managed to recover and live for several more decades. Intrigued but cautious, the young Nicholas Gonzalez decided to scientifically examine what seemed too good to be true.

His mentor at the time, Dr. Robert Good, president of the renowned Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and considered the father of modern immunology, set him a daunting challenge: to rigorously study the cases of patients with inoperable pancreatic cancer treated by Kelley. Dr. Good knew how aggressive this cancer was, with victims generally dying within three to six months. If Kelley had achieved even a few genuine successes with this supposedly incurable disease, then his approach deserved to be taken seriously.

For five years, Gonzalez meticulously studied more than 500 medical records of Kelley’s patients. What he discovered shocked him: many patients, diagnosed with advanced cancers using appropriate conventional methods, had experienced exceptionally long survival times under Kelley’s protocol. Some patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer were still alive more than twenty years after their initial diagnosis. These results were statistically impossible to explain by spontaneous remissions.

This discovery changed Nicholas Gonzalez’s life forever. Rather than following the beaten path of conventional medicine, he chose to devote his career to perfecting and scientifically validating Kelley’s protocol. In 1987, he moved to New York City and began treating patients using an improved version of this approach, which he documented with exemplary scientific rigor.

For twenty-eight years, until his death in 2015, Gonzalez practiced in New York, where he treated more than a thousand patients with various types of cancer. His office was always busy, attracting patients from around the world seeking an alternative to conventional treatments. On July 21, 2015, Nicholas Gonzalez died suddenly at the age of 67. The circumstances of his death were considered suspicious by many, occurring shortly after the deaths of other holistic practitioners in the United States. This premature death raised many questions, especially since Gonzalez was apparently in good health and his work was increasingly unsettling to the pharmaceutical industry due to its growing success. His disappearance is part of a long list of persecutions suffered by those who dare to treat cancer naturally — a subject we will address in the article The persecution of those who treat cancer differently.

2. The Gonzalez protocol: pancreatic enzymes, nutrition, and detoxification

The protocol developed by Nicholas Gonzalez is based on three fundamental pillars, each playing an essential role in accompanying the body toward the natural regeneration of its health.

The first and most central pillar concerns pancreatic enzymes of porcine origin. These enzymes, taken orally in very large quantities (up to 150 capsules per day), are the main anti-cancer element of the protocol. Contrary to what one might think, these enzymes are not destroyed by stomach acid. Gonzalez’s research has shown that they cross the intestinal barrier and enter the bloodstream, where they can exert their action on cancer cells.

This therapeutic use of pancreatic enzymes originated in the visionary work of Scottish embryologist John Beard, who in 1902 observed a striking similarity between placental trophoblast cells and cancer cells. The trophoblast, the layer of cells surrounding the embryo, has remarkable invasive properties: it can penetrate maternal tissue, create its own blood supply, and multiply rapidly. These characteristics are strikingly similar to those of cancerous tumors.

However, the trophoblast differs from cancer in one crucial respect: at a specific point in embryonic development, on the 56th day according to Beard, it ceases its invasive behavior and transforms into a mature placenta. Beard discovered that this transformation coincided exactly with the moment when the fetus’s pancreas began to produce enzymes. He deduced that pancreatic enzymes represented the natural mechanism for controlling cells with invasive behavior, whether normal trophoblasts or aberrant cancer cells.

The second pillar of the Gonzalez protocol concerns nutrition. Unlike many approaches that propose a single diet for everyone, Gonzalez understood that there is no universal diet for treating cancer. Each patient receives an individualized dietary prescription based on their metabolic type and autonomic nervous system. Some patients are prescribed a quasi-vegetarian diet, while others need red meat two to three times a day. This personalization is based on a thorough assessment of each individual’s physiological constitution.

The prescribed diet must always consist of organic foods, free from pesticides and other toxins. The nutritional quality of the food is paramount, as the body undergoing regeneration needs all nutrients in their purest and most bioavailable form possible.

In addition to this diet, patients receive massive, personalized nutritional supplementation. Each patient takes between 130 and 160 capsules of various supplements daily: vitamins, minerals, trace elements, antioxidants, glandular extracts from animal organs (thymus, liver, etc.). This supplementation aims to support all physiological systems weakened by the presence of cancer: vital functions, daily energy requirements, constant immune activity against cancerous tissue, and tissue damage repair.

The third pillar concerns detoxification of the body. Gonzalez regularly observed that his patients developed flu-like symptoms: muscle pain, general malaise. He understood that these symptoms were the result of the healing process itself. When tumors break down under the action of enzymes, they release enormous amounts of toxic waste into the body. The body must then eliminate these substances, which requires active support from the elimination organs.

The main method of detoxification used in the Gonzalez protocol is coffee enemas, performed twice a day. Although this practice may seem surprising, it has a solid physiological basis. Coffee, introduced rectally, powerfully stimulates liver function and bile production, thereby facilitating the elimination of metabolic waste. This technique was widely recommended in orthodox medical literature until the 1970s and appeared in every edition of the Merck Manual from 1897 to 1977.

In addition to these enemas, there are other detoxification techniques such as near-infrared saunas, which promote the elimination of toxins through the skin. Together, these procedures enable the body to effectively rid itself of the waste generated by the destruction of tumor tissue.

3. Impressive clinical results documented and published

The results obtained by Nicholas Gonzalez with his protocol are simply remarkable, particularly in the case of pancreatic cancer, one of the most deadly malignancies in existence.

In 1993, Gonzalez presented 25 of his best cases to the National Cancer Institute. The institute was sufficiently impressed to fund a pilot study of 11 patients with inoperable pancreatic adenocarcinoma, published in 1999 in the journal Nutrition and Cancer. These patients had not received any chemotherapy or radiation therapy and were following only the Gonzalez protocol.

The results were spectacular. Nine of the eleven patients (81%) survived at least one year, whereas conventional medicine achieves only a 20% one-year survival rate for this type of cancer. Five patients (45%) survived for more than two years, four (36%) survived for more than three years, and two (18%) survived for more than four years. As a reminder, with metastatic pancreatic cancer, the median survival in conventional medicine is between three and six months, and only 1% of patients survive five years.

Dr. Michael Friedman, then deputy director of the National Cancer Institute, had set a success criterion of at least three out of ten patients surviving one year. Gonzalez far exceeded this threshold, demonstrating that his protocol deserved further study.

Gonzalez’s clinical records are full of equally impressive cases. One patient diagnosed in 1991 with metastatic pancreatic cancer in the liver, considered terminal and inoperable, was still alive fifteen years later. Another patient, suffering from metastatic pancreatic islet cell carcinoma, was declared inoperable during a laparotomy in 1996. After starting the Gonzalez protocol, a scan performed in 2002 revealed no tumor mass whatsoever. The patient was still alive and in good health ten and a half years after first consulting Gonzalez.

These cases were not limited to pancreatic cancer. In 2007, Gonzalez and his colleague Linda Isaacs published in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine a series of 36 cases of patients diagnosed with various advanced cancers with poor prognoses, all of whom responded well to the protocol. The types of cancers treated included, in addition to pancreatic cancer, breast, lung, prostate, ovarian, bone cancers, and many others.

It is important to note that these results were documented with exemplary scientific rigor. All patients had diagnoses confirmed by biopsy or conventional medical imaging. The files included pathology reports, imaging results, and surgical reports. Gonzalez did not rely on approximate diagnoses or unverifiable testimonials. His publications constitute what is known in scientific methodology as “level II evidence”: cohort studies involving more than 160 patients with confirmed cancers, many of them at advanced stages.

These results cannot be explained by diagnostic errors, spontaneous remissions, or patient selection bias. The only plausible explanation is the therapeutic effect of the protocol itself.

However, there is a controversy that should be mentioned. A comparative study funded by the National Cancer Institute and published in 2010 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology showed opposite results: patients undergoing conventional chemotherapy survived a median of 14 months compared to only 4.3 months for those on the Gonzalez protocol. However, this study was severely criticized by Gonzalez and Isaacs, who pointed out serious methodological problems. In particular, many patients assigned to the Gonzalez group did not follow the protocol correctly, discouraged by opposition from their conventional oncologists and by a lack of support for the lifestyle changes required. A clinical study can only be valid if patients actually follow the treatment they are supposed to receive.

Despite this controversy, Gonzalez and Isaacs’s publications, comprising more than 100 detailed case reports, demonstrate the remarkable effectiveness of this approach among patients who faithfully followed the entire protocol.

4. Cancer seen as a systemic imbalance requiring a holistic approach

Nicholas Gonzalez’s view of cancer differs radically from that of conventional medicine. Rather than viewing cancer as a localized enemy to be destroyed with chemical or radiological weapons, Gonzalez saw cancer as the manifestation of a profound systemic imbalance affecting the entire body.

This understanding is rooted in the trophoblast theory developed by John Beard and further elaborated by William Kelley. According to this theory, cancer cells are not normal cells that have gone haywire, but rather primordial trophoblast cells that have escaped normal regulatory control. These trophoblast cells are believed to be present in all tissues of the body in the form of stem cells, waiting to be activated. In a healthy, balanced body, pancreatic enzymes and the immune system keep these cells under control. But when the body is weakened by carcinogenic factors — environmental toxins, chronic stress, denatured food, nervous imbalances — these control mechanisms fail and trophoblast cells can then develop into tumors.

This view implies that treating cancer is not about attacking the tumor, but about restoring balance to the entire body. This is exactly what the Gonzalez protocol aims to do: support the body in all its physiological systems to enable it to regain its natural ability to control and eliminate aberrant cells.

A fundamental aspect of this approach is the recognition of biochemical individuality. Gonzalez understood that each person has a unique metabolic constitution, determined by their heredity, autonomic nervous system, and life history. This individuality is reflected in each person’s specific nutritional needs.

The autonomic nervous system, which governs the body’s automatic functions (heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, breathing), is divided into two branches: the sympathetic system (activating) and the parasympathetic system (relaxing). Each person has a natural dominance of one branch or the other. Sympathetically dominant individuals and parasympathetically dominant individuals do not have the same nutritional needs. The former generally benefit from a more vegetarian diet, while the latter need more animal protein.

Similarly, the type of cancer influences the protocol. Different types of tumors respond better to different nutritional approaches. Breast cancer may require a different protocol than colon cancer, even if the basic principles (pancreatic enzymes, detoxification, nutritional support) remain the same.

This personalization is one of the major strengths of the Gonzalez protocol. Rather than applying a standardized treatment to all patients, as conventional medicine does, Gonzalez created a tailor-made program for each patient, adapted to their unique physiology and specific type of cancer. This individualized approach recognizes the complexity of the human organism and respects the uniqueness of each person.

Another essential aspect of Gonzalez’s vision concerns the role of carcinogenic factors. Rather than focusing solely on destroying the tumor, the goal was to eliminate the causes that allowed the cancer to develop. Environmental toxins, processed and denatured foods, chronic stress, and nervous system imbalances all contribute to creating a favorable environment for tumor development. By eliminating these factors and restoring “cancer-fugal” conditions — that is, conditions favorable to the disappearance of cancer — the body can then activate its natural defense and regeneration mechanisms.

This holistic approach also recognizes the interconnectedness of all bodily systems. The immune system, the digestive system, the nervous system, the organs of elimination: all work together to maintain the balance of health. Supporting one without considering the others would be doomed to failure. That is why the Gonzalez protocol acts simultaneously on all these fronts: enzymes to directly target cancer cells, nutrition to provide building materials and energy, detoxification to eliminate waste, and nervous system support to restore autonomic balance.

5. The importance of a holistic approach to naturally heal children with cancer

Nicholas Gonzalez’s work represents a remarkable and historic contribution to the field of natural approaches to cancer. By successfully treating stage 4 pancreatic cancer — considered the most deadly and incurable form of cancer — without ever using chemotherapy or radiation therapy, Gonzalez demonstrated a fundamental truth: cancer is not an invincible enemy that necessarily requires highly toxic and aggressive treatments to be overcome.

His clinical results prove irrefutably that it is possible to support the body in its natural regeneration, even when faced with the most formidable forms of cancer. If metastatic pancreatic cancer can be treated naturally, then logically, other types of cancer can be as well. This rigorous clinical demonstration, documented over nearly three decades with more than a thousand patients, provides scientific proof that natural cancer healing is not a myth, but a physiological reality that can be achieved when we understand and respect the laws of life.

Gonzalez practiced in New York, where he saw adult patients for consultations. These patients continued to live in their usual environment and had to follow his protocol independently: ingesting between 130 and 160 capsules of enzymes and nutritional supplements daily, following a strict individualized diet, performing two coffee enemas per day, and devoting several hours daily to various detoxification procedures. Although remarkably effective for motivated and disciplined adults, this protocol has several characteristics that make it complex, costly, and completely inapplicable to children.

My approach at the ¡Viva la Vida! center aligns with Gonzalez’s on several fundamental principles. Like him, I am convinced of the crucial importance of a non-toxic diet consisting of fresh, whole, organic, and unprocessed foods. Like him, I recognize the absolute necessity of detoxifying the body, which in our modern world is generally overloaded with environmental, dietary, and emotional toxins. This chronic intoxication hinders the proper functioning of all physiological systems and prevents the body from activating its natural defense and regeneration mechanisms. Like him, I also understand that each individual, each child, is unique and requires a personalized approach rather than a standardized protocol. My position is to allow each child to choose what they want to eat from the healthy foods on offer, what activities they want to do, and how they want to spend their time, thus respecting their innate bodily wisdom and individuality.

However, my approach differs fundamentally from Gonzalez’s in several essential respects that make it particularly suitable for children under the age of twelve.

First, I work specifically with children, whereas Gonzalez only treated adults. A child cannot ingest 150 capsules a day, perform coffee enemas, or follow a complex medical protocol in a disciplined manner. Children need a gentle, natural, playful approach that respects their nature as children.

Second, I welcome these sick children for several weeks, or even several months, in a place specially designed to be what I call “carcinofugal” in every respect. Carcinofugal is a word I created, because surprisingly, the word carcinogenic has no opposite in the dictionary. According to my definition, carcinofugal means “favorable to the disappearance of cancer”, the exact opposite of carcinogenic. Rather than asking the child and their family to maintain a strict protocol while remaining in their usual potentially carcinogenic environment, I offer them a complete change of environment. At the ¡Viva la Vida! center, nestled in the Bolivian mountains, the child benefits not only from a living food diet and natural detoxification, but also from the pure air of the altitude, the generous tropical sun, deep calm far from urban stress, the total absence of electromagnetic waves, a nurturing emotional environment created by the group collective, and a lifestyle that I describe as “edenic”.

Third, I produce directly on site, in the Pachamama fertile gardens, a large part of the food and medicinal plants offered to the children. By working according to the principles of permaculture on living soils that have never been chemically treated, we obtain fruits, vegetables, tubers, aromatic and medicinal plants of exceptional nutritional richness. These foods, cultivated with love and respect for the earth, are naturally concentrated in all the micronutrients, vitamins, minerals, trace elements, enzymes, and phytonutrients that the body needs to regenerate. There is therefore no need to swallow dozens of dietary supplement pills: nature itself provides everything necessary in its most bioavailable and harmonious form.

Fourth, like Gonzalez, I am aware that if a child is affected by cancer, it means that their body is generally filled with toxins that hinder its proper functioning. Detoxification is therefore an essential part of the support. However, the method used by Gonzalez — coffee enemas twice a day — seems to me intrusive and aggressive for a child. I therefore practice much gentler detoxification methods, which I have experimented with for decades on my own children. The main one is the clay poultice applied to the lower abdomen: this clay, through its remarkable absorbent properties, attracts and binds the toxins present in the body and eliminates them naturally through the skin. In addition to this external application, children can also ingest clay in small quantities, dissolved in a beverage or mixed into food, which amplifies its detoxification action from within. To these poultices and this clay ingestion is added aloe vera, used both externally on the skin and internally. These methods are not only extremely effective in helping the body get rid of its toxins, but they are also completely suitable for children: gentle, painless, free of side effects, and even appreciated by those who practice them, because they directly feel the benefits in their bodies.

Fifth, the approach at the ¡Viva la Vida! center is global and holistic in a way that goes even beyond Gonzalez’s very thorough protocol. We take into account not only the nutritional and detoxification aspects, but also the emotional, psychological, energetic, and spiritual dimensions of healing. The children live in a climate of freedom, joy, play, and creativity. They are encouraged in their personal initiatives. They learn to listen to their bodies and trust them. They rediscover the simple pleasure of living in harmony with nature and with others. This dimension of emotional well-being and inner peace constitutes in itself a powerful medicine that promotes healing at all levels.

Gonzalez’s protocol demonstrated that it is possible to heal cancer naturally in motivated adults capable of following a strict and complex regimen. The approach of the ¡Viva la Vida! center demonstrates that it is possible to offer this same natural healing to children, but in a way adapted to their nature — gentler, more holistic, more respectful of what they are: growing beings who need joy, freedom, nature, and love to flourish and heal.

Nicholas Gonzalez’s legacy is inspiring and encouraging. This doctor paved the way by scientifically proving that cancer can be treated without the destructive weapons of conventional medicine. At the ¡Viva la Vida! center, we continue along this path, adapting it to the world of childhood. Our approach is to offer children with cancer and their mothers the knowledge, the tools, and a natural living environment leading to a “carcinofugal” lifestyle, with the goal of allowing the regeneration of the children’s health with all the respect and love they deserve.

Conclusion: The Importance of Cleansing the Body and Healthy Nutrition to Heal Cancer Naturally

Nicholas Gonzalez’s work represents a major contribution to our understanding of the possibilities of natural cancer healing. His clinical results, rigorously documented over nearly three decades, demonstrate that an approach based on pancreatic enzymes, individualized nutrition, and intensive detoxification can produce remarkable survival rates, even surpassing conventional treatments in some cases of advanced cancer.

Gonzalez leaves us with two key messages. First, the body possesses within itself the mechanisms needed to control and eliminate cancer cells, provided it is given the right conditions. Second, healing cancer requires a holistic approach that addresses the deep causes of imbalance rather than the tumor manifestations alone.

Gonzalez’s legacy invites us to reconsider our way of approaching cancer. Rather than seeing it as an enemy that must be destroyed at all costs, we can understand it as an alarm signal indicating that the physiological terrain needs profound restoration. This perspective opens the way to approaches that respect the body, that work with it rather than against it, and that recognize the innate wisdom of the organism in its regenerative processes.

This article was written by Claire Loiseleur, who is the founder and animator of the ¡Viva la Vida! center, whose mission is to offer children with cancer natural regeneration of health with all the Respect and Love they deserve.

To find out more about the ¡Viva la Vida! center and how it works, I cordially invite you to :

In addition, to go further and understand what the ¡Viva la Vida! center is basing on to fulfill its mission serving children with cancer, I invite you to :

Here is a list of compelling and evidence-based articles about NATURAL APPROACHES TO CANCER BY SCIENTISTS :

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The Facebook group OFFERING MY CHILD WITH CANCER A NATURAL HEALING is a warm and friendly forum for exchange on the theme of Healing pediatric cancer using natural methods. It is open to all parents who have a child with cancer and who are curious to discover the extent to which the keys to natural health can help regenerate their child’s health. The aim is to help each other move forward, beyond the obstacles we face, in order to offer children with cancer natural healing with all the respect and love they deserve.