In the past, Gold has advised the use of hydrazine sulfate in patients with breast cancer, sarcomas, Hodgkin's disease and other lymphomas, and neuroblastomas. He also believed that hydrazine sulfate could enhance the effectiveness of other drugs. Gold postulated that a metabolic circuit existed in cancer patients that allows energy needed for tumor growth to be drawn from normal metabolic pathways. According to Gold, lactic acid from tumor glycolysis, amino acids from protein breakdown, and glycerol from fat mobilization drive gluconeogenic activity, which drains away the energy which normal anabolic processes need to produce and maintain tissue integrity. If the circuit could be broken, cachexia would be overcome and the cancer would be deprived of the energy needed to grow.
Gold recommends that hydrazine sulfate be used in conjunction with conventional therapeutic agents.
Gold and other supporters of hydrazine sulfate were unconvinced of the findings that suggest that the use of HS had no benefit to patients with advanced lung and colorectal cancer. They argued that the treatment protocol used in these studies did not comply fully with the recommendation that patients receiving hydrazine sulfate strictly avoid the use of agents such as barbiturates, alcohol and benzodiazepines. There was no evidence of increased response rate or survival difference as a result of the hydrazine, but there was evidence of a poorer quality of life in the treated group. Dr. Gold's standards of criteria for reporting positive levels of activity in his experimental studies with solid animal tumors did not conform to those of other investigators who could not document or reproduce these results. The intensity of the gluconeogenesis in the liver decreased and in the kidneys increased.