Cancer Decisions - Free Newsletter

HERE AT THE MOSS REPORTS

We are dedicated to bringing our readers and clients the latest and most interesting developments in the field of cancer research and treatment.

The Moss Reports is a comprehensive series of detailed individual reports on more than 200 different kinds of cancer. Each of these diagnosis-specific reports analyzes the current available treatments, both conventional and alternative, and offers the cancer patient a clear-eyed, truthful assessment of the available options. If you would like to purchase a Moss Report for yourself or someone you love, you can do so securely from our Web site (www.cancerdecisions.com), or by calling 1-800-980-1234 (814-238-3367 from outside the US).

I also offer phone consultations to clients who have bought a Moss Report. A phone consultation can be enormously helpful in drawing up a treatment strategy and getting one's options clearly prioritized. We recently received the following comment from a husband and wife who had a joint consultation:

"We felt that speaking to Dr. Moss was a great gift. He has a wealth of information, which we were able to receive because the person we were speaking to was unbiased and had such an obvious concern for humankind." – Clients O. and S. L., April 2006

To schedule an appointment for a phone consultation, please email Jacquie@cancerdecisions.com, or call 1-800-980-1234 (814-238-3367 from outside the US).

We look forward to helping you.

CULTIVATING THE ANTICANCER GARDEN

There are over 70 million gardeners in the United States, and countless more worldwide. For many of us, this is the time of year to finally stop vacillating and decide which seeds and plants are going to go into the ground. I spend my summers in a cool climate and the growing season is rather short. I try to make planting choices with one eye on my plants' anticancer potential. So let's see how a few common garden varieties stack up, especially in the light of recent scientific studies.

Last year, I thinned 50 feet of red raspberries and transplanted the remaining canes into 30 additional feet in a sunny area behind the house. Soon I'll find out how well this no-cost maneuver has worked. If these canes are not productive, I will buy some new plants from the local nursery and may even put in a row of black raspberries, just for a change of pace. I need to have a superabundance of berries because the resident gremlins - my grandchildren, who do most of the picking - extract a tax in fresh berries whenever they go to work. In addition, a young lady of the household appropriates the lioness's share for jams and jellies. (I know, I know – sugar is bad for you, but a little raspberry jam evokes a Proustian remembrance of summer past on a chilly winter morning.)

What else can berries do for you? They are among the most potent and readily available sources of antioxidants on the planet. A few years back, wild blueberries were found to have a super high score on the antioxidant (ORAC) scale. Mainers crowed – you would have thought the Black Bears had won the A-10 football conference.

But no one has a monopoly in the berry sweepstakes. Scientists at Ohio State University have now weighed in with favorable reports of their own on black raspberries, the kind that I generally gather in the sunny edges of woodland clearings. In 2006, these Buckeye State scientists studied the cancer preventing effects of black raspberry extracts on a model of esophageal cancer in mice. Esophageal cancer is difficult to treat, and so any positive news on this front is most welcome. Tumor-bearing animals were fed a diet containing 5 percent black raspberries (more than humans are likely to consume, but good at bringing out effects in a study). After 25 weeks on this regimen, mice that ate black raspberries had approximately half as many tumors as control animals (3.78 vs. 2.23).

No one is quite sure exactly how this tumor-suppressing effect works. Black raspberries are a natural COX-2 inhibitor, and we saw in previous newsletters how Celebrex, a synthetic COX-2 inhibitor, reduced the formation of colon polyps. So perhaps the same mechanism is at work – although I would be dumbfounded if black raspberries also caused cardiovascular disease, the way Celebrex did in the latest studies. Raspberries also reduced certain other markers of cancer formation. The scientists said it had a "novel tumor suppressive role...." (Chen 2006). So how's that for a pleasurable way of helping to prevent a deadly disease?

Another plant that I have in my garden is horseradish (Armoracia rusticana). Its leaves grow absolutely huge. Usually once per summer, my garden helpers, mistaking them for the pesky comfrey that is always ready, willing and able to invade the planting beds, mow the horseradishes down to the ground. The redoubtable plant doesn't seem to mind - the leaves pop right up by the next mowing. Anyway, it is the roots that you want for making horseradish sauce, not the leaves.

Last year, scientists at Michigan State University found that both common horseradish and the extra-pungent Japanese wasabi (Wasabia japonica) contained certain ingredients called monogalactosyl diacylglycerides. These too were found to restrict the growth of cancer cells. Three active ingredients in horseradish and two from wasabi were tested. Compound no. 3 from horseradish inhibited the proliferation of colon cancer cells by as much as 68.4 percent and inhibited lung cancer cells by as much as 71 percent. Compound no. 4 from wasabi inhibited the growth of colon, lung and stomach cancer cells by as much as 44 percent (Weil 2005). These are encouraging results.

You can buy reasonably fresh horseradish from the supermarket's dairy case. (Look for the kind that has nothing but ground root and a little vinegar.) Alternatively you can make a much better horseradish sauce yourself if you have a spade to excavate your two-year roots. You will also need a sturdy vegetable peeler and a blender or food processor. You can then mix the macerated homegrown horseradish with vinegar or with sour cream.

A Surprising Herb

In the herb department, I wouldn't be without feverfew. Many readers know the feverfew plant (Tanacetum parthenium), a member of the Chrysanthemum family, sometimes called bachelor's buttons. This is a cheerful-looking perennial, with a profusion of white pompon-like blooms - like a shower of tiny daisies.

As the name implies, this is a traditional remedy for fevers. It also has a long association with the relief of migraines. (I keep some feverfew pills in the medicine chest in case any of my summer visitors are plagued with that mysterious form of torture.) But feverfew is particularly interesting for its anticancer potential.

You may remember from my earlier newsletters that scientists are now reevaluating all cancer drugs for their effect on malignant stem cells. These are the primitive cells that appear to be fundamentally responsible for the malignant dimensions of cancer. Many conventional cancer drugs are turning out to have a limited ability to kill these cells. That is why feverfew is so interesting.

Scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have found that an extract of feverfew is effective against a type of human leukemia. Monica L. Guzman, PhD, and Craig T. Jordan, PhD, reported that feverfew extracts kill malignant stem cells like no other single therapy they have tested. The active ingredient is derived from parthenolide, one of a class of sesquiterpene lactones found in the plant. The US National Cancer Institute (NCI) has been sufficiently excited by this work to accept it into the rapid access program, which aims to move experimental drugs from the laboratory to human clinical trials as quickly as possible.

"This research is a very important step in setting the stage for future development of a new therapy for leukemia," said Dr. Jordan. "We have proof that we can kill leukemia stem cells with this type of agent, and that is good news."

What is particularly exciting is that this feverfew extract is the first agent known to destroy myeloid leukemia at the level of the stem cells. Increasingly, cancer research is homing in on these primordial cells as the source of cancer. An increasing number of scientists believe that unless cancer is attacked at this level it can rarely be controlled, much less cured.

A 2006 study from Clemson University in North Carolina showed that parthenolide, considered the primary bioactive compound in golden feverfew, has anti-tumor activity. The scientists studied it against two human breast cancer and one human cervical cancer cell line. "Feverfew...extract inhibited the growth of all three types of cancer cells," they wrote. Of four feverfew components, parthenolide showed the highest inhibitory effect, although the other compounds work in concert with it in inhibiting cancer.

A 2004 phase I clinical trial from Purdue University in Indiana gave patients oral doses of feverfew, with up to 4 milligrams (mg) of parthenolide. The daily oral tablet was "well tolerated without dose-limiting toxicity." However, curiously, it did not provide detectable concentrations in the blood. So its exact mode of action remains a mystery (Currey 2004).

You can buy feverfew capsules in the health food store or over the Internet. For instance, one popular preparation of feverfew leaf sells for around 5¢ per 380 mg capsule. The manufacturer recommends one capsule three times per day, which brings the cost to around 15¢ to 20¢ per day. (This is considerably less expensive than many poorly documented anticancer drugs, such as Avastin, now selling for $100,000 per year.) The extract, Tanacet, used in the above-mentioned phase I clinical trial, is sometimes available over the Internet, as well.

You can also grow feverfew yourself. Johnny's Selected Seeds of Winslow, Maine, one of my favorite providers, offers 500 organically grown feverfew seeds for just $3.20. This cheerful plant is a perennial in temperate climates and will self-seed in colder climates. So a $3.20 investment can provide you with all the feverfew you are ever likely to need. No one can guarantee this herb will have any clinical anticancer effects. But, at the very least, these little charmers will adorn your kitchen table with a bouquet that is, to me, the very essence of summer.

--Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.

References:

Chen T, Hwang H, Rose ME, Nines RG, Stoner GD. Chemopreventive properties of black raspberries in N-nitrosomethylbenzylamine-induced rat esophageal tumorigenesis: down-regulation of cyclooxygenase-2, inducible nitric oxide synthase, and c-Jun. Cancer Res. 2006;66:2853-2859.

Curry EA 3rd, Murry DJ, Yoder C, et al. Phase I dose escalation trial of feverfew with standardized doses of parthenolide in patients with cancer. Invest New Drugs. 2004;22:299-305.

Weil MJ, Zhang Y, Nair MG. Tumor cell proliferation and cyclooxygenase inhibitory constituents in horseradish (Armoracia rusticana) and Wasabi (Wasabia japonica). J Agric Food Chem. 2005;53:1440-1444.

**NOTE** To view this page in a more printable format, please CLICK HERE.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

The news and other items in this newsletter are intended for informational purposes only. Nothing in this newsletter is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice.