Usually not a 'first choice'; but an option taken, when it may be the last and only choice for a person who is dying; but refuses to give up hope. Desperate people take desperate measures.
Really not too hard to understand. . .
Sometimes it even works. My office mate's husband gets certain medications from Mexico, and does frequent over the phone consultations to continuously adjust the dosage, the mix, and his diet.
He's way outlived what the US doctors said he would. He's not even "disabled" really. Technically he is, and certainly can no longer hold a job. He tires very easily, but he can get out and do stuff, doesn't yet require a walker (at least not around the house) and until a couple of months ago he could even drive for short trips in the local area. Still can actually, although it makes his wife nervous when he does. He's alot thinner and weaker than before he got the cancer, but he's a lot less dead than the US docs said he would be. He's also under care of a local hospice for the terminally ill. But's he's been terminal for several years now
The story:
The Hoxsey therapy was started in 1840, when it was used on a horse with a cancerous sore on its leg. This formula was passed down through the Hoxsey family and has been used internally and externally on humans for more than fifty years. Mildred Nelson, R.N., now operated this clinic [Bio-Medical Centre], which has been in Tijuana since 1963 and formerly was run by the late Harry Hoxsey." (Fink 1997) Hoxsey was "convicted three times in the 1920s for practicing medicine without a license. In 1930, he was permanently enjoined from violating the Iowa medical practice act. In the 1950s, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration forced him to stop seeing patients." (CA 1993)
Hoxsey's treatment for cancer was based on a formula of ten weeds growing in a field where Hoxsey's grandfather's horse had grazed and been cured of a reported leg cancer. (Janssen)
After being prosecuted for violating the medical practice laws of several states, Hoxsey set up a 'clinic' in Dallas, Texas. (Janssen)
Hoxsey developed prostate cancer in 1967 and treated himself unsuccessfully with his tonic. He eventually underwent conventional surgery. He died in 1974. (Hafner)
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7 years with prostate cancer, at first treated with only the Hoxey method. Doesn't sound completely ineffective. However, as I understand it, the clinic doesn't tout it's treatment as a stand alone cure, but rather something to be used in conjunction with surgery and other more conventional therapies. Also, he apparently had more success with "external" cancers, rather than the "internal" ones, such as prostrate, kidney, liver, bone marrow, etc, etc