96
It may be that Ms. Oakar would have a question.
Ms. OAKAR. Just very briefly.
Doctor, thank you for again your patience in staying so long with
our committee. Doctor, you were a member of this advisory com-
mittee?
Dr. BAUM. The ad hoc committee.
Ms. OAKAR. What was the function of that? I am a little con-
fused, all these different committees?
Dr. BAUM. This was the ad hoc committee on dimethyl sulfoxide,
which was supported by a contract of the Food and Drug Adminis-
tration with the National Academy of Science National Research
Council. I was asked to join this by the National Academy of
Science. We were asked to evaluate dimethyl sulfoxide as a thera-
peutic agent.
We had available to us all of the records of all patients who had
been treated with dimethyl sulfoxide up to that point, which was
1972, with more arriving all the time. The records filled a room at
the National Academy of Science. Those records were reviewed and
summaries made and, in addition, I occasionally went into the
room and would at random open a box and take out a group of
records to go through.
Dr. Scherbel pointed out, and it was true, that as you went
through those records the evidence from those records was, unfor-
tunately, very incomplete. The sheet would say, "Diagnosis, arthri-
tis; treatment, DMSO; improved." Unfortunately, a majority of the
records were of that order. There really was not enough basis—
Ms. OAKAR. Very simplistic it sounds like.
Dr. BAUM. Yes; many of them were. Not every record was like
that. Some of them were beautifully done by people who know how
to do drug studies and they did careful evaluations. So many of the
records, however, were incomplete that we could not really use
them to make an evaluation.
So then we turned to the world's literature; we were helped by
Dr. Jacob, who had probably most of the references. We evaluated
something like 1,200 references in every language, that was trans-
lated for us. So we were able to review them.
I personally reviewed all of the references that were in my area.
I cannot tell you how many hundreds there were.
Ms. OAKAR. You have not really been on the committee since
1972 for the FDA, is that right?
Dr. BAUM. No. I think the committee ran through 1974.
Ms. OAKAR. You have not been on it since then?
Dr. BAUM. No.
Ms. OAKAR. Doctor, before you became a member of this ad hoc
group, you did do research with respect to DMSO?
Dr. BAUM. I used it. I did not do it with a formal protocol saying
I would treat so many patients with this. If a patient came in,
knew about Dr. Scherbel's work so I used it on patients with
scleroderma.
Ms. OAKAR. What were the results?
Dr. BAUM. They were inconclusive to me. We treated one girl for
about 6 months who had bad scleroderma. She had some resolution
over her feet, which was unfortunate because before then she had
had scleroderma of her whole leg. After that happened, the fluid
