One day, ten years ago, or perhaps twenty, the oncologist Laurent Schwartz set out to find the “cancer formula”. An equation which, if it were to come to light, would summarize in a few lines everything you need to know about these horrible lumps, from the cause of their development to the means of getting rid of them. Enough, in an instant, to “understand” these diseases – and above all to “solve” them.
If Laurent Schwartz no longer knows very well when his quest began, it is, according to him, over. At 67, this Parisian oncologist, trained at the Massachusetts General Hospital attached to Harvard University (United States), and long seconded to the Ecole Polytechnique, claims to have succeeded in “deciphering” cancers. A simple sequence of numbers and letters of his own would have been enough to tame them. From these mathematical sentences, which the specialist states to anyone who will listen, would result from the mechanisms common to all tumors, regardless of the nature of the impacted cells. Better yet: his “results”, the fruit of “twenty years of research outside of consensus”, would have put him on the trail of a “probable universal remedy”, a common and easy-to-produce substance: methylene blue.
No clinical study has ever demonstrated the effectiveness of this dye, known since 1877 and very often used in research for its revealing properties. Which did not prevent Dr. Schwartz from showing off his “results” in his latest work, Methylene blue, a forgotten remedy, a new hope against cancer […]. Since its release in October 2024, he has been scouring conferences and alternative media to publicize his “discovery”. Despite his claims, the doctor has never managed to make his way onto the front page of scientific journals. But thanks to this promotional activity, search engines and AI are full of links to his theses. So much so that online, it is now easy to be convinced that a few drops of blue can defeat malignant cells. There is little to no indication that the “treatment” is, in fact, ineffective.
Convinced that it was a serious remedy, some of Dr. Schwartz’s patients even began asking for it at the hospital where they received their chemotherapy. This was the case in the oncology department of Dr Jérôme Barrière, in Cagnes-sur-Mer. “The patient was surprised not to be able to receive this treatment within the establishment,” relates the doctor, a fervent slayer of false medical information on social networks. Seeing, a few days later, that the American actor Mel Gibson was also promoting it, the specialist notified several learned societies. “The emergence of this belief must be taken seriously, because patients, in addition to experiencing adverse effects related to methylene blue, risk wasting time and turning away from effective care,” he says.
Mel Gibson, Nexus and charlatanism
One of these bodies, the French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (SFPT), decided to publish a press releasewhich L’Express had the scoop on, to alert the general public and formally dissuade the use of methylene blue. “No clinical study has shown any benefit linked to this product in cancers,” it is written. Understand: no, dyes, no matter how blue, do not cure cancer. The text reflects the concern of the scientific community regarding these false promises. Especially since Dr. Schwartz pulls no punches: in November 2024, he told the conspiracy magazine Nexus that the substance should “probably” have “the same effectiveness as proven treatments, with less toxicity”. “A caregiver has no right to make such misleading statements,” regrets Dr. Barrière.
According to our information, Laurent Schwartz’s employer, Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) as well as the Ile-de-France Regional Health Agency (ARS) contacted the Order of Physicians, on grounds of “professional inadequacy”. When contacted, the authority did not wish to comment on the current procedure.
On the phone, Dr. Schwartz maintains his assertions, while qualifying: “I hope that the blue is as effective as conventional treatments,” he now declares. His book is full of precautions of this type. “We are swimming in the unknown,” he admits on page 146. A few lines later, he gives instructions on how to administer blue. On page 148, he concedes: “It is very difficult to give definitive advice.” He says on page 152: “In my opinion, a small number of clinical cases is sufficiently informative to constitute proof.”
A controlled speech
A double standard that he accepts in an interview: “My fear is that because of my work, effective chemotherapies will be abandoned. This would be a real mistake because there are things that work in conventional oncology. “, he told us, urging the greatest caution. Then he adds, in slow, labored phrasing that makes his words sound bigger than they are: “It feels like the planets are aligning. What we discovered is potentially very heavy.
Seen up close, these “planets” look more like orbiting debris. Fragments of research, drawn to serve his thesis. He mixes old medical reports dating from the beginning of the century, and experiments of his own, carried out on cells in the laboratory. Nothing usable. “In a petri dish, methylene blue has an effect on cancer cells. But at doses ten times higher than what it would be possible to administer in real conditions to patients,” summarizes Mathieu Molimard, member of the board of directors of the SFPT and head of the medical pharmacology department of the Bordeaux University Hospital.
Laurent Schwarz himself admits to having prescribed this protocol of his invention to his patients. “Only for convicts, without stopping treatment,” he tells us. What do the risks of spasms, delirium, comas, brain and kidney damage, potentially fatal, matter? These side effects are rare, but very real: “9 deaths, 14 cases with a life-threatening prognosis and 35 cases with hospitalization or prolonged hospitalization have been reported worldwide because of this substance”, recalls the SFPT note .
Theses criticized
This is not the oncologist’s first attempt. Already in 2016, he published Cancer: a simple and non-toxic treatmentprefaced by Luc Montagnier, Nobel Prize winner discredited for his conspiracy theories. 38,000 copies. A hit for this type of work. At the time, his thesis did not provoke a reaction. It now finds a new echo. “Medicine sees molecular, genetic causes of cancer and seeks to eradicate them. I think that it is above all a matter of fermentation and electrons, which must be rebalanced,” summarizes- he today.
If he says he “hears the criticism” towards him, Laurent Schwartz sees himself above all as a misunderstood explorer. He would dream of carrying out tests. The National Cancer Institute (INCa) received it around ten years ago, without following up. “Perhaps the data was not as satisfactory as today. But above all I believe that the decision-makers were afraid to change the model. We came with a totally different understanding, difficult to accept. I understood that I was in the way,” he said.
He hasn’t tried his luck again since. From time to time, he contacts the experts in the field on LinkedIn in the hope of convincing them. Where the absence of elements is systematically retorted to him, he prefers to see it as “dogmatism”, or the product of the “pharmaceutical system”. “What industrialist would be crazy enough to launch molecules that cost nothing?” he retorts when asked about it. What he says goes against the facts: every year dozens of molecules already developed and cheap to produce are tested. And many paradigm shifts are occurring in science.
So many positions far from the scientific consensus did not prevent the Senate from inviting him, in March 2024. He was thus able to benefit from a platform before the representatives of the second chamber, without any contradiction. At his side was notably Professor Mark Henryconvinced him of the “quantum” medicinal properties of water, despite all foundation. Since our investigation, the AP-HP has discreetly deleted all mention of Dr. Schwartz from its website.
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