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.