Cancer Study to Put Tumor-Fighting Shark Extract to Test
Many people have been seduced into using over-the-counter shark cartilage preparations to treat cancer by the bestselling 1992 book “Sharks Don’t Get Cancer” (Avery Publishing Group).
The title, of course, is wrong: Sharks do get cancer. Nevertheless, some evidence suggests that something in shark cartilage is useful in fighting tumors. Now, the National Cancer Institute is going to put that something to the test in a clinical trial of a shark cartilage extract against so-called non-small cell lung cancer.
About 171,500 Americans will develop lung cancer this year, and 160,100 will die as a result.
The drug, Neovastat, is one of a family of highly touted new drugs called angiogenesis inhibitors. These drugs block the formation of blood vessels, which growing tumors need to provide nourishment for cancer cells. At least a dozen such agents have been found to shrink tumors in animal studies, but Neovastat is the furthest along in human testing.
Neovastat is a liquid shark-cartilage extract manufactured by Aeterna Laboratories of Sainte-Foy, Quebec.
Scientists are not sure what it is in the extract that produces the anti-angiogenesis effect, says Dr. James Pluda of the National Cancer Institute. The compound might not have been tested, he hinted, were it not for the National Institutes of Health’s new emphasis on alternative medicine.
“Of all the products that we looked at that were shark-derived, this one scored the highest in the review process,” he said. “We are moving forward in the same way we would move forward with any other compound.”
Pregnancy Rashes Linked to Fetal Cells
Many mothers-to-be develop strange red, itchy outbreaks on their skin during the latter stages of pregnancy. The rashes, called polymorphic eruptions of pregnancy, or PEP, spread over a woman’s abdomen, thighs, arms and buttocks, and their cause has been a mystery.
But no longer, French physicians reported in Saturday’s Lancet. Dr. Selim Aractingi and his colleagues at Tenon Hospital in Paris found that the rashes were associated with fetal cells that migrate to the mother’s skin. Interestingly, recent studies have also indicated that the skin disease scleroderma may be caused by fetal cells.
The researchers studied skin samples from 10 women with PEP who were carrying male fetuses and 13 women without the disorder who were also carrying male fetuses. Using highly sensitive techniques, they found uniquely male DNA in the samples from six of the 10 women with PEP rashes, but in none of those without rashes. The presence of male DNA indicates that cells from the fetus are present.The researchers study women with male fetuses because the male fetal cells can be distinguished from the mother’s, and the presence of male DNA in the mother’s skin indicates that cells from the fetus are present.
Easier Way to Detect Rh-Factor Babies
In another fetal-cell study, Chinese researchers report the discovery of a less-invasive technique for determining Rh incompatibilities between a mother and her fetus. Rh incompatibility can cause anemia, swelling and brain damage, and can even kill the baby in the womb. Such incompatibilities can be detected by amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling, in which fetal cells are withdrawn from the placenta for testing, but those procedures have a 1% to 2% risk of causing a miscarriage.
Dr. Y.M. Dennis Lo and his colleagues from the Chinese University of Hong Kong reported in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine that the mother’s blood carries enough fetal cells to test their DNA for the Rh factor as early as the 14th week of pregnancy. The results were wrong in two of 13 women tested during the first trimester of pregnancy, but were correct in all 44 women tested during the second and third trimesters. Results were available in less than a day, compared to two or three days for amniocentesis and as long as a week for chorionic villus sampling.
New Procedure Fights Transplant Rejection
In the same issue of the New England Journal, a USC surgeon reports success in the use of a new technique called photopheresis to prevent the rejection of transplanted hearts. The procedure involves removing blood from the patient and isolating T-cells, the white blood cells that are key to the body’s attack on a transplanted organ. Researchers then add a drug called methoxsalen to the T-cells and expose them to ultraviolet light, a combination that kills the cells.
When the dead cells are reinfused into the patient’s body, they trigger an immune attack on the remaining T-cells that are attacking the heart, thus prolonging transplant survival. Dr. Mark L. Barr and his colleagues studied 60 heart transplant patients, half of whom received conventional therapy and half who also received photopheresis. Those who received photopheresis were more than twice as likely to suffer no rejection episodes.
Smog Risk Varies According to Sex
Men who live in smoggy areas have an increased risk of lung cancer, but women do not, according to a new study by researchers at Loma Linda University Medical Center. The team studied 6,000 Seventh-Day Adventists who lived in California for 15 years.
They report this week in Environmental Health Perspectives that nonsmoking men living in smoggy areas have three times the rate of lung cancer as those living in areas with cleaner air. Both men and women, however, face an increased risk of lung cancer from high levels of particulate soot and sulfur dioxide, they found.
More Good News on Cranberry Juice
The Israeli team that reported eight years ago that cranberry juice helps prevent urinary tract infections has now found that the juice also can help stop plaque formation and gum disease. Dr. Ervin I. Weiss and his colleagues at Tel Aviv University report in the December Journal of the American Dental Assn. that the juice contains compounds that prevent plaque-causing bacteria from adhering to each other. If they can’t stick together, they cannot produce the sticky film of bacteria called plaque.
