American's National Institute of Health will study a cancer care protocol developed by a Kolkata-based father-son homeopath duo.

The protocol, developed by Dr Prasanta Banerji and his son Pratip of the P B Homeopathic Research Foundation, caught the attention of NIH's Cancer Advisory Panel for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, which on Friday announced the appointment of medical research firm Contractual Research Organisation to undertake the two-and-a-half year study.

"When the doctors presented a few cases of cancer cure under our 'Best Case' series in 1998, we found the protocol striking and unusual," Dr Jeffery D White, director of the Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine at NIH's National Cancer Institute, said in Kolkata. "Since then we have been interested in researching it and generating more data."

The centre will compile data on radiographic and pathological studies of 30 lung cancer patients undertaking the protocol at the homeopaths' clinic.

If the study is positive, the NCI will recommend it for FDA approval, White said.