Cancer Decisions - Free Newsletter -May 16, 2004

HERE AT THE MOSS REPORTS

Here at the Moss Reports we are always analyzing the latest developments in cancer research to bring you useful information. We continue our campaign to separate the wheat from the chaff and to distinguish those treatments that are truly useful from those that only appear to be so. I have prepared a series of comprehensive and up-to-date reports on 200+ different cancer diagnoses. I also offer phone consultations. To find if these may be helpful to you please visit our website, www.cancerdecisions.com, or call our office at 800-980-1234 (814-238-3367 when calling from outside the US). We look forward to helping you.

A FRIENDLY SKEPTIC LOOKS AT MANGOSTEEN - PART II

Last week I talked about the increasingly visible and heavily marketed 'health' drink, XanGo, which is produced from the fruit of the mangosteen, a tropical tree.

Marketers of the drink have widely claimed that XanGo has exceptional health-giving properties based on its very high ORAC score. (ORAC stands for oxygen radical absorbance capacity - a measure of the antioxidant value of a substance.) But having a high ORAC value does not necessarily confer any health advantage.

According to Dr. Ronald Prior of the US Department of Agriculture Research Service at Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, "a significant increase in antioxidants of 15 to 20 percent is possible by increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables, particularly those high in ORAC value." However, in order to have a significant impact on plasma and tissue antioxidant capacity one can only meaningfully increase one's daily intake by 3,000 to 5,000 ORAC units. Any greater amount is probably redundant. That is because the antioxidant capacity of the blood is tightly regulated, says Dr. Prior. Thus there is an upper limit to the benefit that can be derived from antioxidants. Taking in 25,000 ORAC units at one time would be no more beneficial than taking in a fifth of that amount: the excess is simply excreted by the kidneys.

According to Dr. J. Frederic Templeman, a Georgia family practitioner who has written a small book on mangosteen, and who is widely quoted by XanGo marketers, if you take these antioxidants "you aren't going to probably have a heart attack as fast as someone who doesn't take them" and consuming them could therefore constitute "literally the difference between life and death." Although I myself have written a book on the subject of the benefit of antioxidants (Antioxidants Against Cancer), I would say it is a tremendous stretch to claim that antioxidants are predictably going to save anyone's life. Good health is achieved through a combination of many factors, hereditary as well as environmental.

Effects on Cancer

At the XanGo website, a company spokesperson interviews Dr Templeman on the subject of mangosteen's beneficial effect on cancer. They both agree that a single test tube experiment is proof of the anticancer value of the juice:

Dr. Templeman: "That's striking."

XanGo spokesperson: "It's incredible."

At various other websites devoted to XanGo (and there are now over 21,000 of them!) we read in glowing terms about both the supposed quantity and quality of scientific research on this previously obscure fruit.

Reality Check

So it is high time for a reality check. Has mangosteen really been thoroughly studied in terms of its effect on cancer and a host of other diseases? Or is this simply a wild extrapolation driven by strong commercial motives?

Dr. Templeman refers to 44 scientific publications on this topic but there are just 29 articles on the topic of Garcinia mangostana in PubMed, the US National Library of Medicine database of 14+ million citations. A total of four of these studies relate to cancer. In one test tube experiment it was shown that a xanthone found in mangosteen kills cancer cells as effectively as many chemotherapeutic drugs. It also appears (on the basis of limited data) that compounds found abundantly in mangosteen can inhibit the harmful Cox 1 and Cox 2 enzymes, and can also induce programmed cell death (apoptosis) in aberrant cells (Ho 2002). Mangosteen thus joins a fairly long list of naturally derived compounds that might potentially have some anticancer activity.

These 29 articles do not constitute a wealth of data. For example, by contrast, PubMed lists over 2,300 articles on the topic of vitamin C and cancer, 125 of which refer to clinical trials. There are a similar number of studies on vitamin E and cancer. There are 835 studies of melatonin and cancer, and a truly impressive 16,000 on polysaccharides and cancer, including 536 clinical trials and 277 randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

Yet, we're to believe that four test-tube experiments constitute - to quote the aforementioned Dr. Templeman - "mountains of evidence" on the benefits of XanGo.

According to the promotional website of one of XanGo's many "independent distributors" (http://bjsbytes.com/Xango/Questions.htm):

"...much of the science behind xanthones is predominantly available to those in the medical community until recently. Many of the clinical studies on xanthones have been done in universities and testing facilities throughout Asia and have recently started to catch the attention of Western researchers."

But is this true? Reputable researchers the world over, including those in Asia, publish in PubMed-listed journals. For example there are over 63,000 articles on cancer in PubMed in the Japanese language. Yet despite the website's misleading talk about "clinical studies," PubMed does not contain a single clinical trial of mangosteen in the treatment of cancer, or any other disease. Perhaps these promoters don't realize that a clinical study is not something done in a laboratory, but a study that by definition is carried out on living patients. Laboratory studies on cell lines or even animals do not qualify for the title 'clinical study'.

Thus, despite what you may read at any one of those 21,000 promotional websites, very little scientific evidence exists concerning mangosteen's anticancer activity in humans.

In my opinion, what we have here is simply an overpriced fruit drink. Fruit drinks are often healthful beverages. But the only reason I can see that the promoters of mangosteen can get away with charging $37 for this product is that they are playing on patients' hopes and fears in a cynical way. Without the health claims, open or implied, the product could only be sold for at most $5 or $6 (which, for example, is the cost of antioxidant-rich pomegranate juice).

The mangosteen phenomenon is a reprise of the aloe vera, gingko biloba, and especially the noni juice story, complete with exaggerated claims for the health benefits of an exotic fruit. It should come as no surprise that both the President and the Chief Financial Officer of Xango once worked for Morinda (now called Tahitian Noni International).

Compounds found in plants have long been of great interest to cancer researchers. We must never forget that about one-fifth of all chemotherapeutic agents (including Vincristine, Vinblastine, Etoposide, Teniposide, and Taxol) are ultimately derived from plant sources. Many of these took a long time to pass through the regulatory process, since serious research into botanical medicine often goes begging for financial and intellectual support. Starved of funds in this way, the riches of the natural world are often neglected by mainstream science, only to be plundered by less scrupulous organizations. The patient loses twice - by not having the fruits of serious research and by being deceived by slick operators posing as friends and benefactors. Some may even opt for unproven miracle juices in lieu of more certain therapies that might save their lives.

When it comes to cancer, we truly live in a topsy-turvy world.

--Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.

References:

Campin, Jac. Guide to Plant Relationships (for food allergy and intolerance identification),Version 12 (14 April 2004. Retrieved April 27, 2004 from: http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/Food/RelatedPlantList.html

Duke, James, ed. Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases. United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Accessed April 27, 2004 from: http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/duke/farmacy2.pl?1228

Hedrick, U.P. (ed.) 1972. Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. NY, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 1972. Downloaded from: http://www.swsbm.com/

Ho CK, Huang YL, Chen CC. Garcinone E, a xanthone derivative, has potent cytotoxic effect against hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines. Planta Med. 2002 Nov;68(11):975-9.

Matsumoto K, Akao Y, Kobayashi E, Ohguchi K, Ito T, Tanaka T, Iinuma M, Nozawa Y. Induction of apoptosis by xanthones from mangosteen in human leukemia cell lines. J Nat Prod. 2003 Aug;66(8):1124-7.

Moongkarndi P, Kosem N, Kaslungka S, Luanratana O, Pongpan N, Neungton N. Antiproliferation, antioxidation and induction of apoptosis by Garcinia mangostana (mangosteen) on SKBR3 human breast cancer cell line. J Ethnopharmacol. 2004 Jan;90(1):161-6.

Morton, Julia F. Mangosteen. In: Fruits of Warm Climates. Self-published. Miami, FL, 1987, pp. 301-304. ISBN: 0-9610184-1-0

Nakatani K, Nakahata N, Arakawa T, Yasuda H, Ohizumi Y. Inhibition of cyclooxygenase and prostaglandin E2 synthesis by gamma-mangostin, a xanthone derivative in mangosteen, in C6 rat glioma cells. Biochem Pharmacol. 2002 Jan 1;63(1):73-9.

ORAC value of Sunsweet prunes: http://www.sunsweetdryers.com/Sunsweet.htm

Recio, M. C., Rios, J. L., and Villar, A. A review of some antimicrobial compounds isolated from medicinal plants reported in the literature 1978-1988, Phytotherapy Research. 1989:3(4)117-125.

Shankaranarayan D, Gopalakrishnan C, Kameswaran L. Pharmacological profile of mangostin and its derivatives. Arch Int Pharmacodyn Ther. 1979 Jun;239(2):257-69.

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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.