Mistletoe Treatment

Suzmor

Hi,

I am just wondering if anyone has heard about mistletoe treatment for cancer. Any research, any comments etc.

Thank you.

Husband11

Was looking into it.  It's available from Naturopathic Doctors.  There are several brand names of product from Europe.  Isquador or something like that is the name of the most well known brand.  Sounds like worst case scenario is the local injection site irritation.  No good clinical trials showing its effectiveness though.  Supposed to train the immune system to attack the cancer.

thenewme

Hi Suzmor,

Here are a few links regarding mistletoe (Iscador) to get you started:

Sloan-Kettering

MD Anderson

Husband11

That's unfortunately some pretty weak recommendations.  Basically no properly designed study to show it works.

mathteacher

Iscador is the most commonly used oncology drug in Germany and is coverered by insurance there. If you want a list of Iscador practitioners contact http://www.iscador.com/index.aspx

hymil

Well i didn't know you could use mistletoe in that way... but seeing the thread title, I was just thinking a pre-seasonal hug could be quite therapeutic.....  holistic, complimentary and just a bit alternative.... oh i love this site!

thenewme

Hi Timothy,

You said, "That's unfortunately some pretty weak recommendations. Basically no properly designed study to show it works. "

Precisely!

LtotheK

If it is the most commonly used drug in Germany, there must be studies.  Anyone know where the European ones are?

Husband11

The studies I've seen have the significant weakness of them "pairing" the results of an individual who is treated with another person of similar diagnostic stage, grade, etc and comparing the two.  This is all done retrospectively, ie after their deaths.  They claim dramatic results, but when you read it they are comparing someone who lived 5 months with treatment vs someone who lived 3 months w/o treatment and saying the two were comparable cases.  Its not the true random assignment of treatment or double blind that is the gold standard for science to make the treatment the only variable.

mathteacher

Timothy, the "gold standard" randomised double blind placebo control has never been used for conventional chemotherapy either. It's never been used for radiation either.

If you want to use a criterion for validation you need to apply it both standard and non-standard medicine equally, no?

Mandy1313

I don't know much about Iscador, but I did have an integrative doctor suggest that I read about it and consider it.

Husband11

Mathteacher, there are many randomized, sometimes double blind clinical trials for comparing various chemotherapy regimins.  Especially the latest generation drugs.   Many completed, many under way.  Just do a search on clinical trials, you will see comparison of all sorts of drugs from antimitotics to monoclonal antibodies and they are all random assignment, many double blind.  Canada, US, worldwide.  The bisphosponate trial is double blind randomized, so is the upcoming metformin trial.  There are also trial involving new radiation technologies that are randomized assignment.  I think the beef with the iscador data is that they picked and chose who got it, and simply compared it to data from other patients they attempt to match as similar.  Sounds reasonable if the results were outstandingly better, but it sounds weak for the actual data of comparing somone who lived a couple of months longer than another person.  Probably only statistically significant if you have very large numbers, and then its still subject to the weakness of who chose to take it and who you compare them to.  Too subjective to be definitive.  I don't think I'd argue the effectiveness based on other therapies that are also untested objectively.  The question is whether iscador works, not whether old school chemo was tested properly.  New regimins of chemo are most definitely randomized tested for comparison to old chemo regimins.  As I mentioned, just do a search of clinical trials and see for yourself.  There are 100's of randomized trials done and underway.

 As for Iscador, I hope it works for anyone who tries it.  It's probably relatively safe.