The Medical Board of Georgia state has suspended the license of a 70-year-old Indian-American doctor for allegedly using insecticides to treat cancer patients and prescribing unauthorised drugs.
The board took the decision unanimously at a 30-minute meeting on Thursday.
The nine-member board's unanimous action came after a federal grand jury had earlier in the week accused Totada R Shanthaveerappa, who practices in Stockbridge, of using weed killer and insecticide to treat patients.
The jury had returned an 87-count indictment accusing him of falsely billing insurance companies by indicating that he was using approved drugs.
The prosecutors alleged that Shanthaveerappa, also known as T R Shantha, was using dinitrophenol, or DNP, a weed killer and other insecticides to treat patients.
His lawyer Dan Conaway said the doctor, who calls himself an alternative healer, will stop treating the patients but his clinic will remain open with other doctors continuing to attend on the patients.
He has not been arrested and his clinic has still not been closed down.
Sources in the law enforcement agency said they expect him to surrender within the next few days and Donaway said the doctor plans to plead not guilty when he appears in court on Tuesday.
Shantha, who has had a license to practice since 1972, can appeal the medical board's decision before a state administrative law judge or the state Supreme Court.
Shantha runs the Integrated Medical Specialist clinic and its website says its goal is to combine conventional and alternative therapies to ablate and/or cure cancer when possible.
'Just as important to curing caner is providing the highest quality and maximum extension of life. This is accomplished by combining the latest in conventional and alternative modalities for an unsurpassed multi-level attack against all cancer,' it says.
The website says the standard two to three week treatment will cost between $25,000 and $45,000 and maximum charges will not exceed 60,000 dollars for three to six weeks.
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