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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 16, 1993                   TAG: 9301160246
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

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MEDICAL OFFICIAL URGES CAUTION TO HOMEOPATHS

The mild reprimand given to a Norfolk oncologist whose unusual supplemental cancer treatments came under professional scrutiny sends a message to homeopathic doctors to go slow, a state health official says.

"They should proceed cautiously," said Bernard Henderson Jr., director of the state Department of Health Professions, which oversees the Virginia Board of Medicine.

Tuesday, a three-member committee of the medical board put Dr. Vincent J. Speckhart on indefinite probation and required that he not use vaccines made from patients' blood, feces or urine to treat cancer. Speckhart had told the panel he used the vaccines to support conventional cancer treatment.

Homeopathy is a branch of medicine that uses drugs derived from natural substances prescribed in very small doses to maximize the body's natural defense mechanisms. - Associated Press

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