Antonio Brú
Antonio Brú Espino (born 1962) is Theoretical physicist and permanent professor in the Departament of Applied Mathematics at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Brú received his PhD in 1995 from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, in physics, with advisor Miguel Ángel Rodríguez. He began his research career in 1989 at the Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT) in the field of anomalous transport and complex systems. In 1993, he established his own research group to study tumor growth. In 2002, he moved to the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Cancer research. Brú is known for the  controversy surrounding his research on cancer, which states (among other things) that: Brú's theory stems from his mathematical research on the Fractal growth of tumour cell colonies "in vitro". This growth, according to his studies, would display a set of distinct characteristics with regards to growth patterns and would imply a greater proliferation around tumour boundaries. Brú's team referred this growth pattern as the "Universal Dynamics of Tumour Growth". This theory is currently recognised as one of the possible equations to describe tumour growth. The rationale for the use of Neupogen would be that the concurrence of a  massive amount of neutrophils near the edge of the tumour may result in a massive population in the concavities at the tumour edge, consequently blocking its growth. He has published his research in "Europhysics Letters" (2003), the "Biophysical Journal" (2003) (where he expands on the MBE theory), and in "Physical Review Letters" (2004). Brú reported treating two patients with G-CSF: a male with terminal hepatic cancer and a female with a Phase IV Melanoma. He published the tumour remission of the hepatocellular carcinoma patient in the "Journal of Clinical Research" (May 2005) 8: 9-13., a predatory journal published  by the OMICS Publishing Group. His alleged success on the two patients, the fact that Brú comes from the Complutense University, his collaboration with researchers from the Spanish Scientific Research Council CSIC and the San Carlos Hospital in Madrid, as well as the mix of mathematical and biological research, made his theory a breaking news event in Spain. Brú has publicly asked for the possibility of doing clinical trials in order to confirm his results, but this has been impossible to date. It was nearly done in the Ramón y Cajal hospital in Madrid, but there was no consensus due  to conditions deemed unacceptable by Brú's team: In June 2007 Brú presented a new proposal for a clinical trial to the "Fundación Puigvert" in Barcelona for Prostate cancer, but it was rejected by said Foundation. Controversy. Brú has confronted scientific and personal attacks as well as generalized media derision. The reactions of the Spanish oncology community was also negative (the latter answered by Brú ) and resulted in the cancellation of scheduled conferences: The pharmaceutical industry has dismissed his work, something Brú ascribes to the fear of losing the economic benefits derived from conventional treatments. The SEOM (Spanish Association of  Medical Oncology) and la AECC (Spanish Association Against Cancer) have been firm in rejecting the therapy proposed by Brú. Most of the criticism is based on the following arguments: These criticisms make no reference of the inherent difficulty of: Most criticism stems from the oncology community and pivots on the lack of preclinical data, as well as from Biophysical experts. According to Brú the therapy has not been sufficiently developed due to a policy of consistent obstacles from the Spanish oncological community—obstacles which could be described as corporatism and systematic mobbing. Brú has repeatedly said that he is willing  to further discuss his research as long as it solely on scientific grounds and under independent supervision.