Promotion of molecular medicine
In the 1980s, while head of the controversially-funded Ludwig Institute in Cambridge, he espoused the cause of "Molecular Medicine" and did much to promote the idea that molecular biology would provide the cure for cancer within 20 years. One of his current commercial enterprises is [http://www.cancerpartnersuk.org/ CancerPartnersUK] a company that is seeking to make up the NHS shortfall in radiotherapy equipment.Criticism of National Health Service
Sikora is very critical of cancer care available on the National Health Service. During President Obama's campaign for healthcare reform, he appeared in a Republican Party attack ad in the United States criticising the NHS. The ad led Imperial College to seek legal advice to stop Sikora from claiming to be a professor of cancer medicine at Imperial; a claim that he had made repeatedly over the previous five years.Promotion of alternative medicine
Sikora and the School of medicine at Buckingham have in the past been supportive of alternative medicine. Buckingham for a short time offered a diploma in "integrated medicine" (a relatively recent euphemism for alternative medicine). Sikora is a Foundation Fellow of Prince Charles' alternative medicine lobby group the ''Foundation for Integrated Health'' and Chair of the ''Faculty of Integrated Medicine'', which is unaffiliated with any university and also includes Drs Rosy Daniel and Mark Atkinson, who led Buckingham's "integrated medicine" course.Release of Lockerbie bomber
In September 2009, the convicted Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds. The Daily Telegraph revealed that Sikora was one of three different doctors hired by the Libyan government to report to them about Megrahi's condition. Sikora's report concluded that Megrahi had only 3 months to live due to terminal prostate cancer. Sikora has since admitted that the "3 months" timescale was suggested to him by the Lybians. According to the Daily Telegraph, this was not the first time that Sikora had been economical with the truth. Sikora's medical diagnosis was not used by the Scottish Justice Minister since it had been paid for by Lybia, but his diagnosis did agree with the medical evidence that ''was'' used. Once released, Megrahi returned to Libya and far outlived the 3-month prognosis. In July 2010, in an interview with the Sunday Times, Sikora said that "it was 'embarrassing' that Megrahi has lived much longer than expected." and "There was always a chance he could live for ten years, 20 years . . . But it's very unusual." This quote was then used first by the UK press and then by a group of USA Senators to undermine the Scottish decision to release Megrahi on compassionate grounds, and then to link the release instead with BP contracts in Libya. In reply, the Scottish Government stated categorically that Sikora's medical opinion was not used by the Scottish Justice Minister. Sikora has since complained about the way journalists have reported his views and stated that there was probably a less than 1% chance of Megrahi living 10 years.Adapted from the Wikipedia article Karol Sikora, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
