The Cuban study was featured along with your author and his recent book, Sharks Don't Get Cancer on "60 Minutes," the top rated CBS television news program. Mike Wallace, who narrated the "60 Minutes" segment, visited Cuba three different times for filming during different stages of the clinical trial.
In the study, all of the 29 patients had been off conventional therapy, including radiation and chemotherapy for at least five full weeks. They were treated only with shark cartilage. Based on the results of the clinical trial, shark cartilage appears to act as an inhibitor and modulator of angiogenesis, or blood vessel development. Failed capillaries cannot be replaced, thus causing theoretical necrosis in the tumor. Therefore, the shark cartilage appears to have the ability to reduce tumor growth and also induce tumor necrosis.
A number of the patients in the Cuban clinical trial also suffered from other immune system maladies such as arthritis, both osteo and rheumatoid, as well as psoriasis. Although the shark cartilage therapy was directed at the cancer, arthritis, especially the rheumatoid type, as well as the long term psoriasis, seemed to rapidly clear up. The observation on arthritis had been previously reported but the dramatic response to psoriasis was surprising. A very recent short term test in Florida on two long term psoriasis sufferers has, in a preliminary way, confirmed the response from the Cuba trial. These two Florida patients demonstrated material improvement in just two weeks under moderately high treatment (30 grams of shark cartilage daily).
For the cancer trial, two methods were used to administer the shark cartilage. The patients were given it either orally, in capsule or powder form (mixed in a thick juice) or rectally, in the form of a retention enema. For both methods, a daily rate of one gram for each two pounds of body weight was administered. The high dosage was usually divided in four equal parts and taken, if orally, on an empty stomach.
This first study has been followed by a second 16 week clinical trial in Cuba on 120 terminal cancer patients. It has been completed and results should be forthcoming shortly. Of the 120 participants in the trial, 30 patients each suffered from breast, prostate, brain and bone tumors. This study, in a preliminary way, is a landmark in the alternative cancer therapy program.
The work from the first trial was reported at various chiropractic conventions. Included in these presentations were pathological tissue slides taken from lymph nodes of five of the eight patients who died after at least 10 weeks on the shark cartilage therapy. The tissue slides clearly showed the absence of blood vessels in the tumor mass as well as major tumor necrosis. A significant increase in fibrous tissue growth basically encapsulating the tumor cells was also seen, an observation not normally seen in advanced cancer.
Based on the reported work, the angiogenic activity comes from a series of special proteins in the shark cartilage rather than from the mucopolysaccharides also found in the shark cartilage.
These reports have expectedly unleashed a demand for shark cartilage. Unfortunately, as often happens in alternative therapies, this demand has brought out companies that are selling untested and ineffective so-called shark cartilage and shark cartilage extract products. These bogus products are appearing on the shelves of health food stores and in the office of unwary practitioners. The most notorious product is being produced in Japan and is touted, through heavy advertising as "improved." To my knowledge, this product is completely untested, is made by a process that eliminates about half of the active proteins and contains 45 percent dextrin, a form of sugar. The process used is one I abandoned years ago. Although this process is effective in reducing the mineral content, it also removes much of the active and most important proteins and necessitates the addition of the sugars to overcome the major hygroscopic nature of the material. I understand and support the American capitalist system but to use my book and my work in order to possibly take advantage of desperate people is not acceptable to me in any form.
Also, as a result of the "60 Minutes" story, many patients have been buying shark cartilage capsules and taking three to five a day. Unfortunately, as stated in this article, the recommended dosage for cancer therapy is high and taking three to five capsules a day will have little to no positive effect except possibly as a preventative.
Based on early responses, shark cartilage therapy seems to offer some interesting hope to patients that have not responded to conventional therapy. Shark cartilage should not be treated as a substitute for conventional therapy, but could be considered to be taken along with such conventional therapy. As more data becomes available, we will pass it to you, hopefully within the next few months.
I. William Lane, MS, PhD
206 Main St.
Millburn, New Jersey 07041