Re: Nutritional Cancer Soup

[Guest guest]

Interesting. I wonder what the actual recipe is as the website does not state.

CountryGirl <ruthful@...> wrote:

http://exchange.healthwell.com/nutritionsciencenews/nsn_backs/Aug_00/cancer.cfm

From The August 2000 Issue of Nutrition Science News

Nutritional Soup for Cancer

An enormous amount of scientific literature shows beyond a reasonable doubt that

many components of fruits, vegetables, herbs and mushrooms have the ability to

retard and treat cancer�at least in animals and test tubes.1-5 Similar results

in human studies, on the other hand, are few and far between, primarily because

human studies have yet to be performed. One exception was the fish-oil study

reported in the January 1998 issue of Cancer, in which a large, well-designed,

double-blind study showed fish oil more than doubled the survival time of

patients with advanced cancers of the breast, colon, lung and pancreas.6

Tragically, these encouraging results did not catch the interest of the medical

profession, the media or the public. Nor did the big cancer organizations and

institutions put their prestige or money on the line in order to replicate the

study. Perhaps their interest will perk up with news of a nutritional broth that

may have tripled the survival time of patients

with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

Non-small cell lung cancer kills more than 400,000 Americans each year. Knowing

conventional therapies are only marginally effective in treating this

condition,7 researchers at the Connecticut Institute for Aging and Cancer in

Milford along with those at the Czech Republic's University of Palacky tested an

experimental nutritional treatment on six patients with advanced (Stage III or

Stage IV) non-small cell lung cancer compared to 13 comparable lung cancer

victims who did not receive the treatment. The design, however, was not

double-blind, meaning both patients and doctors knew who had received the

therapy and who had not. Regardless of which group patients were in, each

continued their standard chemotherapy treatments.

The researchers' experimental cancer treatment was nothing more or less than 30

g a day of soup stock prepared from a broad array of herbs, vegetables and

mushrooms, including soybeans, shiitake mushrooms (Lentinus edodes), mung beans,

red dates, scallions, garlic (Allium sativum), lentils, leeks, hawthorn fruit

(Crataegus pinnatifida), onions, ginseng (Panax spp.), angelica root (

spp.), licorice (Glycyrrhiza spp.), dandelion root (Taraxacum officinale),

senegal root (Polygala senega), ginger (Zingiber officinalis), olives, sesame

seeds and parsley. The complex is now a commercially available product produced

in Milford, Conn.

Although vegetable soup chemotherapy may sound silly, a 24-month follow-up

revealed remarkable results. For example, control patients lost an average of

11.6 percent of their body weight, while those taking the vegetable soup lost

only 2.1 percent. Moreover, vegetable soup patients scored much higher on their

day-to-day quality of life function tests as measured by the standard Karnofsky

Performance Scale (KPS). Among control subjects, KPS scores fell from a

respectable 78 at the start to a struggling 55 within three months, while the

vegetable soup patients' average score actually improved from 75 at the start to

a follow-up value of 80.

The most impressive result of this study, however, was the apparent survival

advantage of those taking the experimental broth. Excluding three patients who

died early, the median survival among the remaining 10 control patients was 4.5

months, with a 95 percent confidence range of four to seven months. In contrast,

half the soup patients were still alive at 15.5 months, with a 95 percent

confidence range of nine to 18 months. Thus, the broth treatment more than

tripled the median survival rate, far surpassing the power of any conventional

therapy.

Of course, these wonderful results could be a fluke. Larger, double-blind and

better-controlled studies may show that vegetable soup is not, in fact,

effective as a cancer treatment. But considering there is a chance that it may

be, the question is whether such pivotal research will actually be performed.

Preliminary signs do offer a smidgen of hope, as the research report itself

acknowledges several internationally respected leaders of the orthodox cancer

elite. Perhaps one or more of these " union " leaders will place their personal

prestige on the line in order to vouch for continued research into the role

herbs, fruits and vegetables play in cancer prevention and cure. If so, a large

double-blind study could start promptly, and, given the deadly nature of lung

cancer, the results would follow quickly. The interests of both patients and

scientists would be served by determining if a bowl of mere vegetable soup has

the power to double as a chemotherapy treatment.

N. Podell, M.D., M.P.H., is director of the Podell Medical Center in New

Providence, N.J.

References

1. Hartwell JL. Plants used against cancer: a survey. (Lloydia; 1971. p

30:379-416; 31:71-170, 32: 70-107, 153-205, 247-96�1969. 33:97-194,

288-92�1970. 34:103-60, 204-55, 301-60, 368-438�1971.

2. SM, et al. Protection against metastasis of radiation-induced thymic

lymphosarcoma and weight loss in C57BL/6NCrlBR mice by an autoclave resistant

factor present in soybeans. Radiat Res 1992;132:259-62.

3. G. Genistein and biochanin A inhibit the growth of human prostate

cancer cells not epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine autophosphorylation.

Prostate 1993;22:335-45.

4.Shamsuddkin AM, Ullah A. Suppression of large intestinal cancer in F344 rats

by inositol hexaphosphate. Carcinogenesis 1988;9:577-80.

5. Chihara G, et al. Antitumor and metastasis-inhibitory activities of lentinan

as an immunomodulator: an overview. Cancer Detect Prev Suppl 1987;1:423-43.

6. Gogos C, et. al. Dietary Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids plus vitamin E

restore immunodeficiency and prolong survival for severely ill patients with

generalized malignancy: a randomized control trial. Cancer 1998;82:395-402.

7. Sun AS, et al. Phase I/II study of stage II and IV non-small cell lung cancer

patients taking a specific dietary supplement. Nutr Cancer 1999;34(1):62-9.

[Guest guest]

I'm thinking reference number one might give more info. I'm sure it is

researchable. You could google N Podell and see if he would share the

recipe.

Donna

Re: Nutritional Cancer Soup

Interesting. I wonder what the actual recipe is as the website does not state.

N. Podell, M.D., M.P.H., is director of the Podell Medical Center in

New Providence, N.J.

References

1. Hartwell JL. Plants used against cancer: a survey. (Lloydia; 1971. p

30:379-416; 31:71-170, 32: 70-107, 153-205, 247-96�1969. 33:97-194,

288-92�1970. 34:103-60, 204-55, 301-60, 368-438�1971.

[Guest guest]

Donna,

I think the ingredients listed in the article is the best one can do with this

limited info. Apparently reference #1's author, Hartwell is dead and his book

is considered rare and out of print. Even in his heyday and his position it

is obvious from the info I found below (worth reading - very interesting) that

the NCI back in 1938 was invested in the Pharmaceutical Industry.

The ingredients I would consider to be very potent but I don't think they are

all listed. I do suppose with further research one could be creative regarding

additional herbs and veggies.

********************************************************************

The researchers' experimental cancer treatment was nothing more or less than 30

g a day of soup stock prepared from a broad array of herbs, vegetables and

mushrooms, including soybeans, shiitake mushrooms (Lentinus edodes), mung beans,

red dates, scallions, garlic (Allium sativum), lentils, leeks, hawthorn fruit

(Crataegus pinnatifida), onions, ginseng (Panax spp.), angelica root (

spp.), licorice (Glycyrrhiza spp.), dandelion root (Taraxacum officinale),

senegal root (Polygala senega), ginger (Zingiber officinalis), olives, sesame

seeds and parsley. The complex is now a commercially available product produced

in Milford, Conn.

The quotation on the previous page was taken from a rare book,

entitled Plants Used Against Cancer* by Dr. L. Hartwell, who worked

at the National Cancer Institute from 1938 (in fact, according to Ralph W.

Moss, was one of its founders) until his retirement from the NCI's Natural

Products Section (which he also founded) in 1975. He studied botanical sources

for cancer treatment for most of his career. The book was published in 1981

by Quarterman Publications in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and although it is

Hartwell's most quoted work and it's probably safe to say it was his " magnum

opus, " it still was one of only a hundred or more papers and books which

Hartwell authored.

Not long after the book was published Quarterman Publications went out

of business and Dr. Hartwell died. We own an original hardbound copy of the

book and keep it at our offices.

Hartwell was born in 1906 and educated at Harvard. He earned in

bachelor's degree in 1927; master's in 1929; and a doctorate in 1935. He was

employed by both DuPont and Interchemical Corporation before his association

with the National Cancer Institute in 1938. As head of the National Products

Section, Hartwell devoted himself to the reserach and administration of cancer

research. He was honored with a seat on the editorial board of the Journal of

Ethnopharmacology as well as membership in the professional societies: the

American Chemical Society, the American Society of Pharmacognosy, the Society

for Economic Botany, and the Phytochemical Society of North America. Hartwell

died on March 22, 1991 in Washington, D.C., where he resided with his wife,

Ann.

We feel that the following quotation, taken from the book's foreword by Jim

Duke, is a story worth telling. As you read this excerpt, remember that it

was written in January, 1982: " ... I view ['s book] as one epitaph

to the cancer-screening program involving the National Cancer Institute with

the U.S. Department of Agriculture for nearly 25 years. In a blow to

natural-products chemistry in the United States, the Board of Scientific

Counsellors, Division of Cancer Treatment, National Cancer Institute, voted

on October 2, 1981, to abolish the NCI research contract program concerned with

the development of antitumor agents from plants. I fear this signals the end

of significant government-sponsored research in the United States on

medicinal plants, leaving research to the pharmaceutical firms, who have

shown relative disinterest in plant products. According to the OTA (Office of

Technology Assessment, 1981) Project

Proposal, approved by Congress, Technologies for Sustaining Tropical Forest

Resources (p. 15), " The National Cancer Institute has screened about 35,000

higher plants species for activity against cancer; as of 1977 about 3,000 of

these had demonstrated reproducible activity; a small fraction were

appropriate for screening should perhaps be accelerated. " Apparently,

Congress had not anticipated the closing down of the plant screening

program. In 1978, as a longtime student of herbal medicine, I changed places

with Dr. R.E. Perdue as leader of the Medicinal Plant Resources Laboratory of

the USDA. Although no exciting new leads developed during my association

with the program, they may well reside untested in the hundreds of plant

specimens that came in from Australia, China, Ecuador, Madaagascar, and

Venezuela after the program was ordered phased out. I fear that the

long-range implications are that, as a

result of this cutback, some plant species with anticancer activity

will suffer extinction before they are ever studied. Some natural

drugs that could save thousands of lives and alleviate much suffering

will disappear from the face of the earth, irretrievable, without ever being

used...

We are aware of a number of cases involving Hartwell's work --

where higher-appointed authorities within the NCI, acting in concert with

friends in the pharmaceutical industry, would squash a project that showed real

promise in the area of cancer research. One of these was an herbal project

called " ammatosin, " developed over a twenty year period by a

phytopharmacologist who has been reported to be the original inspiration

behind the movie, Medicine Man (1992), Dr. Wilburn H. Ferguson. [The fictional

story, however, takes place in neighboring Brazil.]

As the story is told by Ferguson family members, Wilburn went to the

Amazonian jungles of eastern Equador in the 1950's to research a herbal

product that was reported to cure cancer in all but the rarest of cases. He

spent about twenty years reducing the formula, which was part of the oral

ethnobotanical pharmacopaeia of the Jivaro indians, from 35 herbs down to 7 --

in other words, he left in the formula only those herbal components which were

shown to make a contribution to the cancerolytic process.

A series of clinical human studies were initiated, all of which demonstrated

that the product worked as well as any control pharmaceutical to which it was

compared. (One set of clinicals were conducted in Pama Valley, California -

1959-1960; to be followed by other clinicals that produced similar results).

Dr. Hartwell was first notified of these results by Professor in a

letter dated April 6, 1971 -- upon which Hartwell began investigations of his

own. Ferguson attempted to get funding from Zimmer (owner of Men's

Warehouse in Houston), but was unsuccessful.

Hartwell was asked to drop the investigation, funding was never obtained as a

result of a lack of any " official " approval, and today, the product is made

privately by members of the Ferguson family -- who refuse to do anything

further to bring the formula to the public for fear of reprisal from regulatory

agencies.

Such is the legacy of the best minds in natural, alternative botanical

solutions to cancer treatment in the modern age. And no such list could be

properly compiled without including the name of Hartwell.

Footnotes & Relevant Links

---------------------------------

* --- Plants Used Against Cancer was published in hardbound in 1982 by

Quarterman Publications, Inc. (last address of record: 5 South Union Street,

Lawrence, Massachusetts 01843). We went to great lengths to contact any

remnants of Quarterman in early 1993 -- to no avail. Their last phone number

was (508) 689-0207, and the offices were in a structure known as the " Ere Mill

Building. " We could find no one who would admit knowing anything about the

company in Lawrence. For the record, the book copyright page reads, " This work

is a facsimile compilation of the serialization entitled, " Plants Used Against

Cancer. A Survey " by L. Hartwell which appeared in Lloydia in eleven

installments between 1967 and 1971. The original text has been reproduced

chronologically with the pages renumbered consecutively. A forward has been

added to this edition. " [by Jim Duke, dated January, 1982] Plants Used Against

Cancer was part of a two volume " Bioactive

Plants " series published by Quarterman. The first volume was called Medicinal

Uses of Plants by Indian Tribes of Nevada by Percy Train, R. Hendrich,

and W. Archer. Additional identifying information on Plants Used

Against Cancer includes the following:

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 81-85230

International Standard Book Number: 0-88000-130-5

Printed in the United States of America

Herbalgram article on Hartwell

Chinese Tree Extract -- a valuable cancer-fighting botanical source, the

discovery of which was a Hartwell contribution

Hartwell and the Yew Tree discovery

Comments on his work in uncovering plant-based cancerolytics

Comments on Hartwell by Ralph W. Moss

The Hoxsey Formula -- Hartwell founded cancer-fighting properties in

virtually all the herbs used in the much maligned internal Hoxsey formula.

CountryGirl <ruthful@...> wrote: I'm thinking reference number one might

give more info. I'm sure it is researchable. You could google N Podell

and see if he would share the recipe.

Donna

Re: Nutritional Cancer Soup

Interesting. I wonder what the actual recipe is as the website does not state.

N. Podell, M.D., M.P.H., is director of the Podell Medical Center in

New Providence, N.J.

References

1. Hartwell JL. Plants used against cancer: a survey. (Lloydia; 1971. p

30:379-416; 31:71-170, 32: 70-107, 153-205, 247-96�1969. 33:97-194,

288-92�1970. 34:103-60, 204-55, 301-60, 368-438�1971.