Mistletoe therapy of metastasizing renal cancer. a phase Ii study
Kjaer, M.
Ugeskrift for Laeger 150(32): 1923-1928
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0041-5782 PMID: 3413875 Document Number: 308990
The public interest in alternative cancer therapy is considerable. Since the 1920's advocators of anthroposophical medicine have postulated a highly significant effect of misteltoe plant extracts on life quality and survival of patients with most solid tumours. Fourteen patients, eight men and six women, median age 65, range 47-74 years, with previously untreated histologically verified renal adenocarcinoma stage IV and clearly measurable lung metastases, were treated with subcutaneous injections of Iscador every second day in escalating doses over three weeks followed by maintenance therapy, 20, 30, and 50 mg/ml on alternate days. Patients were evaluated monthly and disease status classified according to the WHO criteria. No response was demonstrated. 2/14 patients died with unchanged disease after 30 and 60 days, respectively. The median time until progression of the disease was 108 days, range 33-348 days. The first site of progression of the disease was lungs in 10/12, outside lungs in 2/12 patients. All of the patients have now died. The median survival was 165 days, range 44-694, which in retrospective comparison is exactly the same as in previous phase II studies of the same type of patients. Apart from local reactions around the injection sites and moderate fever on the day of injection, the treatment was well tolerated with no major toxic reaction. It is concluded that, under the conditions chosen for the study, Iscador is without objective effect and without the life prolonging effect in most solid tumours postulated by adovcators of anthroposophical medicine.