My Mom went to see Dr. Bruckner at the end of her battle with cancer. I think he is a very good doctor, although he is extrodinarily busy. My Mom had chemo in Brooklyn under his care but never even met him the whole time she was there. It was dissapointing on that level to have gone so far and never to have even met him. He was that busy. He relies heavily on his staff. They took VERY good care of her and were extremely attentive. My dad said they were so attentive that someone was in the room at every moment. But it was strange that she never even meet the doctor. My Dad and I went to meet him before he took my Mom down. He was an interesting character - My husband works for Microsoft and there are so many guys there who are absolutely brilliant at what they do but seem a little different when you meet them on a personal level. My Dad and I walked out of our meeting with him and both of us decided that we had just met a cancer nerd (I don't mean that in a bad way). I think he eats, lives, and breathes solving cancer. I think people can be talented at many things and he is talented at mixing chemo. He seemed very smart but a little different. I liked that he was not the kind of guy who just gave up on people with very serious metastatic disease.
I know from my families experience and that of a very good friend that he will throw everything he can at the disease. He will not tell you it is hopeless. He will emphasize that there is a middle ground - living with cancer for as long as possible (in our minds the longer we were able to fight it, the more we could hope for a cure.) He will not claim to have a cure. Before we went I knew that it was probably a sink or swim moment. My friends Mom had gone to him after months of not responding to anything and the chemo he put her on was very strong. She did not see a benefit from the chemo. It was the same for my Mom. He is very good about controlling pain and naseau -but for my Mom she was just too weak and it didn't work out well for her. She lost her desire to eat and wound up not going back. I wish we had gone to him earlier because I think we would have had a better chance. He also owns a company and has done a lot of research on testing an individuals tumors to determine the best course of chemo. I don't know much about this area of his expertise.I do know of one gentleman who has been going to him for years. He was bedridden and Dr. Bruckner was able to use his chemo cocktails to beat back his cancer quite dramatically. He does have a much higher success rate when it comes to longevity. He has a number of patients who are still living 2-3 years past their diagnosis. If you look him up on PubMed you will see that he has many many published studies. He specializes in mixing chemotherapies to try to activate therapies that may not have worked on their own.
I guess my report is a bit of a mixed bag. If you would like to know more about the hospital experience and the practical stuff then let me know.
I wish you the best in your search.
Jessie