Cancer Care through Homoeopathy
Interesting Research Papers - Focus on Cancer
A paper has recently been published that provides a narrative review of the potential role of homeopathy in cancer care (1).
In this review the author takes a broad approach covering some of the key sources on the prevalence of homeopathy usage by cancer patients in Europe; what is known about the general clinical effectiveness of homeopathy (mentioning both the controversial Australian and Swiss reports) as well as what is known about the clinical use of homeopathy in cancer specifically (either as a sole, adjunctive or integrated treatment).
The review paper also covers some evidence of the safety of homeopathy, a brief review of the evidence for the use of homeopathy in treating side effects of conventional cancer treatments and describes some of the articles available looking at biological effects of remedies on cancer cells in experimental (laboratory) models.
Overall, the review concludes that "....in certain situations, one might consider the use of homeopathic remedies as an additional tool to integrate into cancer care".
However, whilst this review seems comprehensive and sympathetic to the potential use of homeopathy in cancer care it is important to appreciate that it is not a systematic review.
This means that the evidence discussed was not systematically identified and the article contains little to no critique of the cited sources. Instead the article is predominantly descriptive and does not cover all the available evidence.
Similarly, the review article only describes a handful of the available studies of the effects of homeopathic remedies on cancer cells in experimental models: there has been a small surge in publications in this area, especially in the last 18 months, with most papers being published by key research teams in India. There is already a significant body of in vitro and experimental evidence showing that a range of homeopathically prepared remedies commonly used in the 'Banerji protocol' for treating cancer are selectively toxic to cancer cells, leaving healthy cells unharmed.
The main process by which remedies have been shown to be toxic to cancer cells is by inducing a process known as apoptosis - this is a form of programmed cell death that is activated when a cell becomes aberrant and needs to be removed for the greater good of the organism without causing tissue destruction and inflammation.
Here we will cover some of the recently published studies that add more evidence to this growing list of studies.
Using a battery of molecular and cellular test systems that are widely recognised and well-established in the study of cancer cells in the laboratory, the remedy Ruta graveolens (used in a potency range from Mother Tincture (MT) to 10M, but focused on MT and 30C) was shown by Arora and Tandon (2) to be cytotoxic and pro-apoptotic in a colon cancer cell line; Mondal et al (3) showed that Conium maculatum (homeopathic mother tincture only) was also cytotoxic and pro-apoptotic to a cervical cancer cell line; while Sikdar et al (4) have shown that Condurango (6C and 30C) is cytotoxic and pro-apoptotic towards a lung cancer cell line. Interestingly, the study by Sikdar et al (4) also showed that the 30C preparation of Condurango was more "potent" than the 6C preparation in causing cell death, which the authors say is consistent with homeopathic doctrine.
In addition to these studies demonstrating the overall effect of remedies on cancer cell lines, a further study by Saha et al (5) assessed the exact molecular mechanism by which the remedy Thuja (which has already been shown to be cytotoxic towards a breast cancer cell line - 6) acts to induce apoptosis.
The researchers used Thuja at 6C, 30C and 200C at different concentrations on the breast cancer cell line MCF-7 and found that potentised Thuja had a two-step action in causing apoptosis: Thuja was shown to initiate an internal increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS - which, at low concentrations, acts as a signal that something inside the cell is not quite right) followed by an amplification of a feedback loop where increasing levels of ROS (telling the cell that damage is severe and something needs to be done to kill the cell) lead to the activation of the central protein involved in regulating apoptosis - this protein is known as p53 and once activated causes changes in gene expression and mitochondrial function that ultimately induces apoptosis. Altogether, the authors dissected out each molecular step in this process and showed that the remedy Thuja was not simply acting as a poison on the cancer cells, but was "helping" the cell to recognise that it had become aberrant by initiating and amplifying the ROS-p53 feedback loop.
A similar detailed dissection of the molecular actions of remedies was applied by the same research team to the action of Sulphur on non-small cell lung carcinoma cells (7).
In this study Sulphur was shown to induce apoptosis by affecting a balanced check-point between survival and cell death that relies on a molecular competition for a protein called p300.
This protein is a key co-activator of gene expression, particularly expression of the gene Bcl-2, which itself is an activator of apoptosis.
Again, the homeopathic remedy being tested was effectively targeting a key decision point for the cell and tipping the balance in favour of apoptosis so that an aberrant, cancerous cell can be removed.
It is clear that these recent studies, along with the already significant body of evidence available for the effects of remedies in cancer cells, show how we are steadily building a detailed molecular picture of how a remedy might act to restore balance within cancerous cells.
However, much more research is needed before these laboratory findings can be translated fully into clinic.
A paper has recently been published that provides a narrative review of the potential role of homeopathy in cancer care (1).
In this review the author takes a broad approach covering some of the key sources on the prevalence of homeopathy usage by cancer patients in Europe; what is known about the general clinical effectiveness of homeopathy (mentioning both the controversial Australian and Swiss reports) as well as what is known about the clinical use of homeopathy in cancer specifically (either as a sole, adjunctive or integrated treatment).
The review paper also covers some evidence of the safety of homeopathy, a brief review of the evidence for the use of homeopathy in treating side effects of conventional cancer treatments and describes some of the articles available looking at biological effects of remedies on cancer cells in experimental (laboratory) models.
Overall, the review concludes that "....in certain situations, one might consider the use of homeopathic remedies as an additional tool to integrate into cancer care".
However, whilst this review seems comprehensive and sympathetic to the potential use of homeopathy in cancer care it is important to appreciate that it is not a systematic review.
This means that the evidence discussed was not systematically identified and the article contains little to no critique of the cited sources. Instead the article is predominantly descriptive and does not cover all the available evidence.
Similarly, the review article only describes a handful of the available studies of the effects of homeopathic remedies on cancer cells in experimental models: there has been a small surge in publications in this area, especially in the last 18 months, with most papers being published by key research teams in India. There is already a significant body of in vitro and experimental evidence showing that a range of homeopathically prepared remedies commonly used in the 'Banerji protocol' for treating cancer are selectively toxic to cancer cells, leaving healthy cells unharmed.
The main process by which remedies have been shown to be toxic to cancer cells is by inducing a process known as apoptosis - this is a form of programmed cell death that is activated when a cell becomes aberrant and needs to be removed for the greater good of the organism without causing tissue destruction and inflammation.
Here we will cover some of the recently published studies that add more evidence to this growing list of studies.
Using a battery of molecular and cellular test systems that are widely recognised and well-established in the study of cancer cells in the laboratory, the remedy Ruta graveolens (used in a potency range from Mother Tincture (MT) to 10M, but focused on MT and 30C) was shown by Arora and Tandon (2) to be cytotoxic and pro-apoptotic in a colon cancer cell line; Mondal et al (3) showed that Conium maculatum (homeopathic mother tincture only) was also cytotoxic and pro-apoptotic to a cervical cancer cell line; while Sikdar et al (4) have shown that Condurango (6C and 30C) is cytotoxic and pro-apoptotic towards a lung cancer cell line. Interestingly, the study by Sikdar et al (4) also showed that the 30C preparation of Condurango was more "potent" than the 6C preparation in causing cell death, which the authors say is consistent with homeopathic doctrine.
In addition to these studies demonstrating the overall effect of remedies on cancer cell lines, a further study by Saha et al (5) assessed the exact molecular mechanism by which the remedy Thuja (which has already been shown to be cytotoxic towards a breast cancer cell line - 6) acts to induce apoptosis.
The researchers used Thuja at 6C, 30C and 200C at different concentrations on the breast cancer cell line MCF-7 and found that potentised Thuja had a two-step action in causing apoptosis: Thuja was shown to initiate an internal increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS - which, at low concentrations, acts as a signal that something inside the cell is not quite right) followed by an amplification of a feedback loop where increasing levels of ROS (telling the cell that damage is severe and something needs to be done to kill the cell) lead to the activation of the central protein involved in regulating apoptosis - this protein is known as p53 and once activated causes changes in gene expression and mitochondrial function that ultimately induces apoptosis. Altogether, the authors dissected out each molecular step in this process and showed that the remedy Thuja was not simply acting as a poison on the cancer cells, but was "helping" the cell to recognise that it had become aberrant by initiating and amplifying the ROS-p53 feedback loop.
A similar detailed dissection of the molecular actions of remedies was applied by the same research team to the action of Sulphur on non-small cell lung carcinoma cells (7).
In this study Sulphur was shown to induce apoptosis by affecting a balanced check-point between survival and cell death that relies on a molecular competition for a protein called p300.
This protein is a key co-activator of gene expression, particularly expression of the gene Bcl-2, which itself is an activator of apoptosis.
Again, the homeopathic remedy being tested was effectively targeting a key decision point for the cell and tipping the balance in favour of apoptosis so that an aberrant, cancerous cell can be removed.
It is clear that these recent studies, along with the already significant body of evidence available for the effects of remedies in cancer cells, show how we are steadily building a detailed molecular picture of how a remedy might act to restore balance within cancerous cells.
However, much more research is needed before these laboratory findings can be translated fully into clinic.
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