Category Archives: Colorectal Cancer

Adjuvant therapy with protein-bound polysaccharide K and tegafur uracil in patients with stage II or III colorectal cancer: randomized, controlled trial.

PURPOSE: Intravenous fluorouracil and leucovorin for six to eight months is currently a standard adjuvant treatment for Stage III colon cancer; however, this regimen is complex, inconvenient, and has a high intolerability. Adjuvant chemotherapies are claimed for objective response rates with an acceptable safety profile and complexity. We investigated the benefits of oral protein-bound polysaccharide K added to oral tegafur/uracil on curatively resected Stage II or III colorectal cancer. METHODS: We prospectively randomized 207 patients to treatments of either oral 3.0 g protein-bound polysaccharide K plus 300 mg tegafur/uracil or 300 mg tegafur/uracil alone for two years following 12 mg/m2 and 8 mg/m2 mitomycin treatment on postoperative Days 1 and 2, respectively. The primary end points were disease-free and overall survival, and recurrence rates. RESULTS: Three (1.4 percent) patients were declared ineligible, and three patients did not start treatment. In total, 201 patients were analyzed. The three-year, disease-free survival rate was 80.6 percent (standard error = 3.4 percent) in the protein-bound polysaccharide K group (P = 0.02) compared with 68.7 percent (SE = 5.7 percent) in the control group after a median follow-up of 3.7 years. The estimated relative risk of recurrence in the control group was 1.87 (95 percent confidence interval, 1.10-3.20) at three years. The three-year, overall survival rate was 87.3 percent (standard error = 2.9 percent) in the protein-bound polysaccharide K group and 80.6 percent (standard error = 4.8 percent) in the control group (P = 0.24). The three-year, overall survival rate in 80 pathological TNM Stage III patients was 83.0 percent (standard error = 5.2 percent) in the protein-bound polysaccharide K group and 59.3 percent (standard error = 9.5 percent) in the control group (P = 0.02). Protein-bound polysaccharide K prevented distant metastases (P = 0.05), particularly lung metastases (P = 0.01). The incidence of adverse effects was minimal, and compliance was good. CONCLUSION: Adjuvant therapy using a combination of oral protein-bound polysaccharide K and tegafur/uracil is highly effective in preventing the recurrence of colorectal cancer in Stage II or III patients, and increases overall survival in pathological TNM Stage III. These results will be a sufficient proof to conduct a larger study to compare tegafur/uracil/protein-bound polysaccharide K with 5-fluorouracil/leucovorin.

Coriolus Versicolor is Potent Mushroom for Fighting Cancer and Autoimmune Diseases – By: Barbara L. Minton, citizen journalist

(NaturalNews – January 28, 2009) For thousands of years Chinese medicine has prized the mushroom for its energizing and healing properties. Chinese legend is filled with stories of those who discovered the 1,000 year old mushroom and became immortal. In the West, acceptance is based less on tradition and more on the results of the scientific method. Researchers have been busy scientifically documenting what Chinese tradition dictates, that mushrooms are some of the most potent medicines on the plant. Recent research findings have shown the Coriolus versicolor mushroom stands out above the rest for regulating the immune system.

Coriolus versicolor found to be effective against cancer and human papillomavirus

Researchers at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York tested several botanicals for their immune enhancing activity using a subcutaneous immunization model of cell surface carbohydrate expression in cancer cells in a study published in September, 2008 Vaccine. They found Coriolus versicolor to display consistent and significant immune enhancement activity superior to all other coumpounds tested. The superiority of Coriolus to yeast beta-glucan, maitake, turmeric, echinacea, and preparation H-48 from Honso USA, was described as surprising. Although the exhibited levels of immune enhancing ability of astragalus was also impressive, it was surpassed by that of Coriolus.

The March, 2008 BMC Cancer reports Coriolus versicolor has shown anticancer activity with positive results in the treatment of gastric, esophageal, colorectal, breast and lung cancers. The efficacy of its protein-bound polysaccharide as an immunomodulator is credited. This activity was independent of its previously described immunomodulatory effect on NK cells.

The journal Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy reports double blind trials on 111 patients with colorectal cancer, using Coriolus versicolor. Although traditional medicine offers little help for colon cancer patients, Coriolus showed a remarkable enhancement of the patient’s white blood cells, even in advanced colon cancer cases. The white cells greatly increased natural chemotactic motion and phagocytosis, the ability to scavenge toxins and kill pathogens. Coriolus was also used with patients as a helpful maintenance therapy following cancer surgery.

The results of a year long clinical trial examining the effects of mushroom supplementation in patients with Human Papillomavirus (HPV) were so impressive they were presented in 2008 at the 20th European Congress of Obstetrics and Gynocology. Dr. Silva Couto and his research team found that Coriolus versicolor supplementation over the period of one year substantially increased regression of dysplasia and induced clearance of the high-risk subtypes of the HPV responsible for cervical cancer. Coriolus supplementation demonstrated a 72 percent regression rate in lesions compared to 47.5 percent without supplementation, and a 90 percent regression rate in the high risk HPV virus sub-types compared to 8.5 percent without.

After using the supplement for one year, 72.5 percent of recipients reverted to normal cytology compared with only 47.5 percent of the control group. Coriolus supplementation produced a 90 percent regression rate in the high risk HPV virus sub-tupes compared to an 8.5 percent regression without supplementation.

It is also likely that Coriolus versicolor would be beneficial in high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL), a precancerous condition in which the cells of the uterine cervix are moderately or severely abnormal. The lead physician of the study noted that the optimal supplementation period may be as short as six months.

Coriolus versicolor modulates autoimmune diseases

T cells belong to a group of while blood cells known as lymphocytes, and play a central role in cell-mediated immunity. The activation of T helper (Th) cell subsets also plays an important role in immunity. Uncontrolled Th responses lead to autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The identification of agents that modulate these helper cells is essential for controlling autoimmune diseases. A study from the November, 2008 Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, reported that polysaccharopeptide (PSP) from Coriolus versicolor exhibited the ability to control aberrant T lymphocyte activation through ciclosporin-like activity. PSP alone suppress production of activated T cells.

What makes Coriolus versicolor special?

Coriolus versicolor, also referred to as the turkey-tail mushroom, contains large quantities of Beta-glucans that act to stimulate the immune system. Coriolus can dramatically regenerate and rejuvenate the body. Its most active medicinal components are biological response modifiers called protein-bound polysaccharides. These polysaccharides are known as Krestin or PSK in Japan, and as Yun zhi, or PSP in China. There have been reports of cases of Bell’s palsy clearing up with use of Coriolus for just a few days. Others have found it effective against bronchitis.

Other studies have shown that Coriolus can double the number of natural killer cells after only 8 weeks of treatment. Coriolus has also been found to help patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and may be an effective treatment for Lyme disease.

More research documents the anti-tumor benefits of Coriolus

Japanese researchers screened 200 of the best phytochemicals (plant extracts) known for anti-tumor activity. Coriolus versicolor was designated as exhibiting the greatest amount of anti-tumor activity. In another Japanese study, 185 people with lung cancer at different stages were given radiation. Doctors found those who also took Coriolus showed the best tumor shrinkage and the best survival rate. Another study involving stomach cancer patients produced similar results. Those who received Coriolus survived significantly longer, felt better and had fewer side effects.

Coriolus is first line defense against infection

Coriolus is a good centerpiece for your natural medicine chest, even if you are currently the picture of health. When any type of infection strikes, you will be ready. Coriolus can be used to target any infected organ, gland or tissue. Its immune enhancing properties provide an increased response to deal effectively with infections, and do this without over stimulating the immune system.

Sources:

Clinical Trial Results Show Proof of Concept for Use of Coriolus Versicolor As Immunonutrition in IPV Patients With Cervical Lesions, Medical News Today.

Coriolus, www.cocoonnutrition.org.

Coriolus Versicolor, University of California, San Diego Complementary and Alternative Therapies for Cancer Patients.

About the author

Barbara is a school psychologist, a published author in the area of personal finance, a breast cancer survivor using “alternative” treatments, a born existentialist, and a student of nature and all things natural.

Source: NaturalNews – http://www.naturalnews.com/025455.html

Adjuvant immunochemotherapy with oral Tegafur/Uracil plus PSK in patients with stage II or III colorectal cancer: a randomised controlled study

Intravenous fluorouracil and leucovorin is the standard adjuvant treatment for stage III colon cancer. However, oral adjuvant chemotherapy is attractive because it has low toxicity and greater convenience. We investigated the benefits of oral protein-bound polysaccharide K (PSK) with tegafur/uracil (UFT) as an adjuvant in stage II and III colorectal cancer. Patients were assigned to groups that received either 3 g PSK plus 300 mg UFT, or 300 mg UFT alone orally each day for a 2-year period following intravenous mitomycin C. Of 207 registered patients, 205 with stage II (n¼123) or III (n¼82) were analysed. The 5-year disease-free survival was 73.0% (95% CI 65.6–80.4%) with PSK (n¼137) and 58.8% (95% CI 47.1–70.5%) in the controls (n¼68) (P¼0.016). POLYSACCHARIDE K reduced the recurrence by 43.6% (95% CI 4.5–66.7%) and mortality by 40.2% (95% CI _12.5 to 68.3%). The 5-year survival was 81.8% (95% CI 75.3–88.2%) in the PSK group and 72.1% (95% CI 61.4–82.7%) in the control group (P¼0.056). In stage III patients, disease-free and overall survivals in patients receiving PSK were increased significantly: 60.0% (95% CI 47.1–72.9%) and 74.6% (95% CI 63.0–86.1%) in the PSK group as compared with 32.1% (95% CI 14.8–49.4%) and 46.4% (95% CI 28.0–64.9%) in the controls (P¼0.002 and 0.003, respectively). Polysaccharide K prevented recurrence, particularly lung metastases (P¼0.02; odds ratio 0.27; 95% CI 0.09–0.77). In the models, the presence of regional metastases (relative risk, 2.973; 95% CI 1.712–5.165; Po0.001), omission of PSK (relative risk, 2.106; 95% CI 1.221–3.633; P¼0.007), and higher primary tumour (relative risk, 4.398; 95% CI 1.017–19.014; P¼0.047) were each significant indicators of recurrence. Adverse effects were mild and compliance was good. Oral PSK with UFT reduced recurrence in stage II and III colorectal cancer, and increased survival in stage III.

For full article click here.

Coriolus Versicolor – The Miracle Mushroom

This extract taken from quantumhealing.co.za details various trials and treatments of Coriolus Veriscola.

It shrank his liver tumor by 90%––after his doctor gave up on him.

A man describes his oncologist as “the most negative man I ever met.” The doctor treated Mr. G. for liver cancer for six years, then gave him up as untreatable. “After the chemo failed, he threw up his hands, shrugged his shoulders, wished me good luck, and said there was nothing else he could do,” according to Mr. G. “And surgery couldn’t be performed either, because the consulting surgeon saw that the tumor was wrapped around my vena cava blood vessel.”

Mr G. told his oncologist, “I totally reject what you are telling me. I do not accept that nothing can be done to affect the outcome of this disease.” The doctor said, “Well, I know what I’m talking about when it comes to cancer. I’m a scientist.”

Mr G. shot back, “Yes, but you’re not God!” Four years later the patient was healthy again after using the type of therapies known as CAIM (complementary/ alternative/integrative medicine), especially including capsules containing the powdered extract of a mushroom, Coriolus versicolor. Mr G. learned about the remedy on the Internet and he can tell you all about it, having downloaded nearly 400 studies.

Amazingly, Mr. G.’s liver cancer reduced to less than ten percent of its original size. His CEA (carcinoembryonic antigen) cancer marker fell more than two-thirds from 296 to 97.9.

What is Coriolus Versicolor?

Like all mushrooms, Coriolus versicolor is a fungus, one of more than a half million varieties worldwide. Many of them have been known for thousands of years to have medicinal properties. And as you may know, gourmets the world over prize both wild and commercially grown mushrooms. Some European cookbooks even call them “flowers of the fall.” Whatever you call them, certain mushrooms are a perfect food for staying trim and healthy. They have little or no fat and some species, like Coriolusversicolor, boast valuable therapeutic and nutritional benefits. But a few fungi are poisonous and we do not recommend that nonexperts attempt to harvest their own. Coriolus versicolor goes by a number of botanical names, including Trametes versicolor and Boletus versicolor.

“Versicolor” refers to the mushroom’s various colors. In North America, the common name is “turkey tail,” while in Japan it is called by a name meaning “mushroom by the river bank” and in China its name indicates it’s a cloud fungus that grows best in the rain.

Over 400 clinical studies have shown that a purified extract derived from the mushroom Coriolus versicolor offers strong benefits for the immune system. Clinical studies indicate the extract’s ingredients are especially effective against stomach, uterine, colon and lung cancer.

Anecdotal evidence and clinical experience suggest it also works well against prostate, breast, liver and colorectal  cancer. Studies of rats and mice show that this mushroom is effective against many experimental animal cancers such as sarcoma and hepatoma.

Martha I.’s lung cancers disappear

“Of course,” says Dr. Bailey, “some cancer patients take Coriolus versicolor even while they engage in radiation treatment or chemotherapy. Or the patients don’t submit to chemotherapy or radiotherapy at all but rely, instead, exclusively on nutritional therapies with the medicinal mushroom as the main treatment ingredient.

“For example, one of my patients, Martha I., a 34-year-old woman working in the health field, consulted me with a cancer spreading at two sites in her lungs. Orthodox treatment had been tried but no longer was effective. She discontinued her smoking of two cigarette packs a day and embarked on nutritional therapies.

The nutrients included Martha’s completing six months of taking Coriolus versicolor. After this halfyear, radiological examination showed that all of her lung tumors had disappeared. Seeing her current progress, orthodox medicine probably would declare this patient to be cured.”

Blood tests show how the mushroom boosts immunity

I spoke with a doctor who measures natural killer cell (NK) counts and considers them a valuable cancer

marker. Kenneth Bock, M.D., is the medical director of two holistic medical clinics, one in Rhinebeck, New York and the other in Albany. “Because it increases natural killer (NK) cell activity, I think of using Coriolus versicolor mainly when I’m confronted with a patient suffering from cancer or a viral infection,” he says. “This mushroom is one of the main medicinal compounds I use to boost a diminished blood reading which records NK activity. The mushroom’s active biological response modifier produces a marked improvement in NK cell function and number, something I monitor by blood testing. If the blood reading is low, my patient takes greater amounts of PSK capsules. And, although it’s an expensive and sophisticated assay, I repeat my NK cell testing inside of a month or two. In a number of patients, I’ve seen some nice blood test improvement.”

Dr. Bock finds that a few patients with advanced metastatic cancer see their NK counts jump from 2 or 3 to a normal 20 to 50.

Patient’s immune system recovers

“I can illustrate what I’m saying by providing a before-and-after case history plus the literature that backs my claim,” Dr. Bock states. His patient was a white, married computer consultant named Marty E., sixty years old and suffering from high blood pressure and arteriosclerosis when he was also found to have polyps on his larynx. These were removed, with radiation therapy as a follow-up. But then Marty E. was also found to have prostate cancer.

“His blood test showed diminished natural killer cell activity at the level of 6 m/u,” Dr. Bock states. “Still, Marty wanted no conventional therapy for prostate cancer. So I started him on alternative medical therapies for prostate cancer and to improve his deficient NK cell activity. Coriolus versicolor was a definite part of his treatment regimen.

“Within two months, the patient’s NK cell activity elevated to 18 m/u. And two months after that his NK cell activity increased to a normal 31 m/u. Now the man is doing well physically, and he tells me he feels great! I would say this type of response to the  PSK therapy is usual; the patient’s quality of life does improve dramatically and he or she feels asense of well-being,” according to Dr. Bock.

A naturpathic doctor named Tori Hudson told of her clinical experience using PSK for breast cancer patients during and after chemotherapy. “My impression is that patients taking Coriolus versicolor are experiencing less side effects from chemotherapy such as diminished fatigue, less nausea (but not less hair loss), and more stable white blood cell counts. I have not measured natural killer cell counts,” she states.

Animal studies confirm what patients see for themselves

Animal studies show PSK is effective against a long list of cancers including melanoma, sarcoma, mammary cancer, colon cancer and lung cancer. Studies also show it inhibits metastasis to other sites. The studies indicate PSK enhances the immune system and battles cancer cells. It’s been shown to prolong the survival time and stimulate the production of cancer antibodies in mice with cancer.

PSK is also a potent antiviral remedy that may hold new hope for HIV-AIDS. It even lowers cholesterol in animals and speeds up recovery from burns in rabbits when used in combination with the herb Astragalus membranaceus.

Can be used in combination with conventional treatments

Human patients who have decided to stick with conventional chemotherapy and radiation therapy need to know that PSK renders these toxic treatments much more effective, as shown by a number of clinical studies.

A Japanese study looked at the effectiveness of 200 phytochemicals (plant substances) when used in combination with chemotherapy and radiation. Coriolus versicolor was found to be the best of the bunch. The researchers suggest that this medicinal mushroom seems to protect the immune system from being suppressed by prolonged use of chemotherapy drugsand by the cancer itself.

Further investigations indicate a marked improvement in the survival rates of chemo and radiationpatients taking the mushroom therapy when compared with those who did not. For patients with Stage I lung cancer observed over ten years, the tumor shrinkage and survival rate was 39 percent for those taking PSK compared to only 16 percent for patients receiving the toxic therapies without the mushroom extract. That’s a huge difference––more than twice as many survived and/or improved with the help of PSK.

Those lung cancer patients with more serious Stage II cancer experienced a 22 percent tumor shrinkage and survival rate over ten years when they took Coriolus versicolor orally while being treated with chemo or radiation. Among the people who didn’t take the herbal remedy the figure was a mere five percent.

From this study of 185 lung cancer patients it appears the mushroom extract can make the toxic therapies anywhere from two to four times more effective.

A Japanese study of 262 gastric cancer patients tested the mushroom’s efficacy following surgery. During a follow-up period ranging from five to seven years, the half who received the mushroom extract survived at substantially higher rates. The researchers concluded that PSK was a useful adjunctive therapy to surgery and chemo.

A Japanese study of breast cancer patients found similar results: Those who received PSK along with chemotherapy had better outcomes than those who did not. And a study of 28 patients suffering from acute leukemia––all on chemotherapy––showed an average survival time of 21 months for those who took the mushroom extract and 12 months for those who did not.