Colon cancer info

FDAApproves Test of Traditional Chinese Medicine

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a clinical trial of Kanglaite, a drug derived from an herb used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TOM). The source of the drug is a tropical Asian grass called coix (pronounced "coy") or Job's tears (lacryma-jobi), which is related to corn (maize). The stalks of the coix plant contain white beadlike grains that, in addition to being eaten, are sometimes used to make necklaces.

About 20 years ago, a young physician named Dr. Da-Peng Li observed that people in China who ate coix seed as a dietary staple had a surprisingly low incidence of cancer. He eventually derived a drug from the seed's oil. Kanglaite, which is given by injection, was approved by the Chinese authorities in 1996. Since then, more than 200,000 cancer patients in 2,000 Chinese hospitals have received the Kanglaite injection, either as a stand-alone agent or along with chemotherapy and radiation. According to the manufacturer, the Zhejiang Kanglaite Pharmaceutical Company, it is now the number one anti-cancer drug in China.

The company's brochures contain reports of its extensive research in test tubes, animals and humans. The drug has been shown to induce apoptosis, or programmed cell death, in various kinds of human tumors, and has a powerful effect on angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels to feed a tumor). In research using "nude" (immune-deficient) mice that had been grafted with human cancer cells, the drug significantly inhibited the growth of many kinds of cancer.

More recent clinical trials of cancer patients have also been promising. In one study, Kanglaite injection was compared to chemotherapy in the treatment of primary lung cancer. Out of 214 patients in the Kanglaite group, there were 26 partial responses (12.15%) and stabilization of disease in 165 patients (77.1%). This was about the same response as seen with chemotherapy alone. However, Kanglaite had none of the typical side effects of chemotherapy. In a trial of liver cancer patients, there was a response rate of 11.43% and disease stabilization in an additional 39% when Kanglaite was used alone.

Even more dramatic results have been achieved by the combination of Kanglaite and chemotherapy. In a small study of lung cancer patients, chemotherapy alone yielded a partial response rate of 22%. This response rate more than doubled, to 45%, when Kanglaite and chemotherapy were used together.

Kanglaite has also been used in combination with surgery. In one study, administering Kanglaite injection before surgery caused tumor destruction (necrosis) in more than 50% of the cases. Other research has shown that Kanglaite enhances the sensitivity of tumor cells to radiation therapy.

Particularly promising are studies demonstrating Kanglaite's ability to reduce cancer pain. One study found that Kanglaite's efficacy was 62% for severe pain and 100% for slight pain, for an overall effectiveness of 80%. Kanglaite's greatest success in pain reduction was in lung, breast, stomach, esophageal, colon and thyroid cancers. It was least successful with pancreatic cancer and bone sarcomas. The pain relief lasted about 7 days after the withdrawal of the drug. According to the manufacturer, Kanglaite can take the place of morphine or morphine-like analgesics. Its only side effect, as reported by the company, is an occasional allergy to the lipids, with mild flu-like symptoms (low fevers, shivering and nausea).

In 2001, the company received permission from the FDA to launch a phase I trial of Kanglaite at the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City. This small four-month trial demonstrated the drugs safety, clearing the way for a larger phase II trial of the drug's effectiveness to be conducted in China during the next year. I met John L. Harmer, the company's president and CEO, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting, where Kanglaite USA had taken a booth to inform oncologists about the drug and the impending clinical trials.

Everything about Kanglaite sounds promising. Although Kanglaite by itself is not a "cancer cure," it is particularly promising when used together with radiation or chemotherapy. Its effect on pain and cachexia, if confirmed, could make it a major weapon in the fight against cancer.

However, be aware that the drug is presently only approved in China and is not yet available in the US. At best, some patients might be able to participate in a phase III clinical trial to be conducted at various sites in the US in the future. Also, all of the data cited abcve is from the drug's manufacturer, and there is very little in the Western medical literature about Kanglaite or coix. While the Chinese science appears reliable, it needs to be confirmed in the West before Kanglaite can be approved for sale here.

To find out the current status of clinical trials you can visit the company's website, kanglaiteusa.com, or contact them at:

Kanglaite USA

Phone: 801-364-8904

Fax: 801-531-6558

Email: info@kanglaiteusa.com

Update on Screening Mammograms

Are screening mammograms advisable? For accurate information let us turn to the Committee for Nuclear Responsibility and its excellent chairman, John William Gofman, MD, PhD. Gofman knows X-rays. Although he is Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California at Berkeley, he started his career in the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bomb. He shares patents on the fissionability of uranium-233 and on early processes for separating plutonium from fission products.

Gofman also led the team that discovered and characterized the lipoproteins (LDL and HDL), so important in the causation of heart disease. In 1963, he established the Biomedical Research Division for the Livermore National Laboratory, where he was in the forefront of research into the connection between chromosomal abnormalities and cancer. Gofman's work at Livermore resulted in his present "maverick" status, for when he warned the Atomic Energy Commission of how easily radiation could cause cancer, he suddenly was stripped of his major research grants. In recent years, as chairman of the Committee for Nuclear Responsibility, he has tried to warn the public and the medical profession of the danger of too-large doses of radiation used in diagnostic X-rays.

For an overview of the potential risks of ionizing radiation, I would suggest you look at the Committee's website, and in particular Dr. Gofman's penetrating article on making decisions regarding diagnostic X-rays: http://www.ratical.org/radiation/CNR/XHP/MPDaXrayST.html#Part1

The Potential Danger of Mammograms

Mammography can be used either to diagnose a known condition or, more commonly, to screen a general population that has no signs or symptoms of disease. There is little argument that screening mammography does sometimes detect small tumors that cannot normally be detected by manual breast examination. For this reason, screening mammography has become a bedrock of public health policy; There are posters and brochures in nearly every hospital and doctor's office. From TV ads and billboards to airport exhibits and public service announcements, the necessity of screening mammography is communicated through every possible media outlet.

But there have always been dissenters. I myself raised some doubts about it in my 1980 book, The Cancer Industry. Lately, as the result of a rigorous study from Scandinavia, there has been debate in the media over the safety, efficacy and advisability of mammograms. In the face of this uncertainty, many experts are calling on women to decide for themselves whether to have mammograms or not. "It is the women who will have to live with the consequences of their decisions," wrote the New York Times (April 14, 2002).

There is something ironic in this call by experts for women to decide for themselves. I'm all for patient empowerment. But for 25 years, these same experts insisted that they knew best and that screening mammograms were the way to catch breast cancer in its early "curable" stages. Now, they suddenly reveal themselves to be in a hopeless muddle. It is as if a group of trusting passengers boarded a ferry that advertised a quick and safe passage to the opposite shore, but mid-voyage, a thick fog developed, the radar failed, and the crew started to fight over the proper direction. And so the captain announced that the passengers would now have to decide for themselves on the proper course forward.