The Italian physiology professor Luigi di Bella, who has died aged 90, caused a sensation in the late 1990s with the controversial cocktail of vitamins, drugs and hormones he created as a treatment for cancer. The mysterious elixir - based on somatostatin, melatonin, retinoids and bromocriptine, and tailored to individual patients' needs - was dismissed as useless by pharmacologists, but it divided Italian opinion, with rightwing politicians joining the popular clamour for freedom of medical choice.
Di Bella sprang to fame in December 1997 when a judge in the southern town of Maglie ordered the local health authority to fund his treatment of a two-year-old girl suffering from brain cancer. The patient died in July 1998, but news of her family's legal battle caused a run on sales of somatostatin. In 1996, only 1,000 boxes of somatostatin phials had been sold; the figure reached 42,000 in 1997 and surged to 104,000 the following year. Television exposure turned di Bella into a miracle-worker, with desperate patients from all over the world beating a path to his Modena clinic.
Medical experts remained sceptical - a senior pharmacologist said the cure, "a totally irrational association of drugs supported by absolutely no scientific evidence", had "the same dignity as Lourdes water" - and di Bella's approach to record-keeping did not enhance his reputation. Clinical trials in 1998 showed his treatment had had little or no effect, and in some cases had proved toxic.
The findings failed to shake di Bella's confidence. He accused drug companies of conspiring against him, and suggested that the results were sabotaged by mainstream doctors. He may not have been completely mistaken; magistrates in Florence are currently investigating allegations that some tests were conducted on ingredients that had passed their expiry date and that some mixtures did not meet the recommended quantities.
Di Bella was born in the Sicilian village of Linguaglossa, the 13th child of a clerical worker. He studied medicine at Bari University, served as a wartime army doctor in Greece and became professor of physiology at Modena University in 1948. Remarkably determined, he built his home and laboratory with his own hands.
While di Bella rejected political labels, his treatment continues to be highly politicised, and members of the rightwing Northern League have been leading a campaign for its rehabilitation. Even today, some 3,000 patients receive somatostatin-based cancer treatments paid for by three regional health services.
Di Bella is survived by his two sons.
· Luigi di Bella, physiologist, born July 17 1912; died July 1 2003
