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Saturday, November 17, 2012

Shark cartilage and cancer

Shark cartilage has been promoted to cure cancer since around 1950.  It started with surgeon John Prudden claimed that shark cartilage reduced tumor almost by half the size.  Laboratory studies suggested that it may have anti angiogenesis (reducing cancer blood vessels).  Unfortunately, clinical studies showed no prove of its effectiveness in cancer patients.   Most recently, a purified shark cartilage extract (Neovastat) failed to help survival of patients with non-small cell lung cancer.  The Federal Trade Commission has prevented several companies from promoting this cartilage for cancer treatments.

My opinion is to leave the shark cartilage alone.  Sharks should be allowed to live too....

Reference:
-Loprinzi CI, et al.  Evaluation of shark cartilage in patients with advanced cancer.  Cancer. 2005; 104:176-82
- Lu C, et al. Chemoradiotherapy with or without AE-941 in stage III non small cell lung cancer: a randomized trial.  J Natl cancer Inst.  2010; 102:859065
- Federal Trade Commission.  "operation cure all" nets shark cartilage promoters. http://ftc.gov/opa/2000/06/lanelabs.shtm

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