Mistletoe Extract Prolongs Survival in Cancer Patients When used as adjunctive treatment in patients with a variety of cancers, Iscador, a mistletoe extract, increases survival time by 40%, according to results of a prospective German study. Dr. Ronald Grossarth-Maticek of the Institute for Preventive Medicine in Heidelberg and associates recruited patients with bronchogenic carcinoma or carcinoma of the breast, rectum, colon, or stomach, between 1973 and 1988. The investigators describe their research in the May issue of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. In the first part of the study, 396 patients who had been treated with the mistletoe extract were matched with 396 individuals who had not received mistletoe treatment. Patients were interviewed periodically until final followup in 1998. The difference in survival time overall was highly significant, with mistletoe-treated patients surviving for a mean of 4.23 years after inclusion in the study versus 3.05 years for the control group. Only in 44 pairs with stomach carcinoma and 52 pairs with non-small-cell bronchogenic carcinoma did the differences not reach significance. A second part of the study included 56 patients randomized to receive mistletoe treatment and 56 matched patients who did not use the mistletoe extract. Among seventeen pairs of patients with breast cancer with axillary metastases, mean survival time increased from 2.41 years in the control group to 4.79 years in the mistletoe-treated group. For the remaining 39 pairs, survival times were 2.45 years and 3.49 years, respectively. In another study involving mistletoe, no difference in survival was observed between groups of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Dr. Grossarth-Maticek and his colleagues attribute the lack of effect in this study to the very low dose of a preparation that included only one component of mistletoe extract. Altern Ther Health Med 2001;7:57-78. Thanks to Reuters Health. Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.