THE MOSS REPORTS Newsletter (08/01/04)

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> 3 Aug 2004 00:30:17 -0000

> " Cancer Decisions "

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> THE MOSS REPORTS Newsletter (08/01/04)

>

>

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> Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D. Weekly CancerDecisions.com

> Newsletter #143 08/01/04

>

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>

>

>

> THE MOSS REPORTS

>

>

> This week I report on an intriguing line of research

> that has grown out of observations concerning the

> common earthworm.

>

> It appears that this lowly creature has much to

> teach us – but only if we are willing to learn. To

> many within the world of alternative cancer

> treatment the discovery that enzymes from the

> earthworm’s digestive tract can be harnessed in the

> service of promoting human health will not come as a

> total surprise. Proponents of alternative and

> integrative medicine have long advocated the use of

> enzymes as a valuable aid in cancer therapy.

>

> However, until now many die-hard opponents of

> alternative medicine have held it almost as an

> article of faith that the use of enzyme supplements

> is worthless, and amounts to little more than

> quackery.

>

> Perhaps this perception may at long last be about to

> change.

>

> For the past thirty years I have been studying the

> world of cancer research and treatment, monitoring

> the divergent paths taken by the orthodox and

> alternative medical communities. The fruit of my

> long career in the cancer field has been The Moss

> Reports, a series of detailed reports on the

> conventional and alternative treatment of more than

> 200 different kinds of cancer.

>

> If you or someone you love has received a diagnosis

> of cancer, a Moss Report can provide you with the

> key to understanding the best that conventional and

> alternative medicine have to offer. You can order a

> Moss Report on your specific cancer type by calling

> Diane at 1-800-980-1234 (814-238-3367 from outside

> the US), or by visiting our website:

> http://www.cancerdecisions.com

>

> We look forward to helping you.

>

>

> OF ENZYMES, WORMS AND CANCER

>

>

> That unloved little girl of the children’s rhyme,

> who sat in the garden eating worms, may have been

> onto something. There is a new health product on the

> market called lumbrokinase, which is derived from

> the common earthworm, Lumbricus rubellus. Along with

> ants, insects and other creepy-crawly things,

> earthworms have for thousands of years been a staple

> of traditional Chinese medicine (Mihara 1992). One

> ancient Chinese medical text, the Ben Cao Gang Mu

> (or Compendium of Medicine) states that earthworms

> (known as " Di Lung " ) are useful in unblocking the

> body’s acupuncture meridians and channels, improving

> circulation and overcoming numbness in the limbs.

>

> In a beautifully written 1883 book, The Formation of

> Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms, no less

> a luminary than Sir Charles Darwin observed the

> ability of worms to digest just about everything in

> their path. He compared the juices of the

> earthworm’s digestive tract to the pancreatic

> secretions in humans:

>

> " The digestive fluid of worms is of the same nature

> as the pancreatic secretion of the higher animals, "

> wrote the great English biologist, " and this

> conclusion agrees perfectly with the kinds of food

> which worms consume. Pancreatic juice emulsifies

> fat, and we have just seen how greedily worms devour

> fat; it dissolves fibrin, and worms eat raw meat; it

> converts starch into grape-sugar with wonderful

> rapidity, and we shall presently show that the

> digestive fluid of worms acts on starch. "

>

> It was in fact the ability of the worm’s digestive

> juices to dissolve fibrin that attracted the

> attention of scientists a century later. During the

> 1970s, Prof. Shan Hongren discovered the enzymatic

> functions of an extract of earthworms. For this he

> was honored with the United Nations Science

> Conference Award in 1978. In 1997, a product made

> from earthworms, named Plasmin, was approved by the

> Chinese government as a new medicine. In 1999, the

> China Medical Society made Plasmin a key product to

> be promoted all over China. In the same year it was

> registered by the China Supervisory and

> Administrative Bureau as a class two nationally

> protected TCM formula, and in 2000 it was included

> in the China National Pharmacopoeia - at least

> according to a number of promotional websites

> (Health King 2004).

>

> Starting in the 1980s, Japanese scientists confirmed

> this observation experimentally when they isolated

> six proteolytic enzymes from earthworms. They

> collectively named these enzymes lumbrokinase (LK).

> (Proteolytic enzymes are natural substances that

> speed up the digestion of proteins into their

> constituent amino acids.) Lumbrokinase is now being

> made available by a number of American food

> supplement distributors, including Allergy Research

> Group of California.

>

> There are presently 17 articles on lumbrokinase in

> the National Library of Medicine’s encyclopedic

> database, PubMed. This is not a great number, and

> only one of these articles is a clinical study.

> However, this study concluded that " lumbrokinase is

> beneficial to the treatment of cerebral infarction

> [stroke, ed.] " (Jin 2000). The substance also shows

> some potential in the postoperative care of patients

> who have received prosthetic vascular grafts (Hwang

> 2002).

>

> I learned about lumbrokinase from a prostate cancer

> patient, whose naturopath suggested it as an

> alternative treatment. There are currently no

> articles in PubMed on the use of lumbrokinase in

> cancer treatment. I therefore would not support the

> use of lumbrokinase for this purpose until the

> necessary clinical research has been done. But the

> basic concept is sound, and such research is

> certainly warranted.

>

>

> Role of Pancreatic Enzymes

>

>

> There is considerable evidence to suggest that

> taking digestive enzymes may be an important part of

> an overall anticancer program. This is the approach

> taken by Nicholas J. Gonzalez, MD, of New York City,

> whose pancreatic enzyme-based anticancer regimen is

> currently being studied by the US National

> Institutes of Health (NIH). While the actual

> clinical trial of his regimen languishes for want of

> support by the oncology community, there was

> encouraging news this May from the University of

> Nebraska. An animal study co-authored by Dr.

> Gonzalez and published in the peer-reviewed journal

> Pancreas showed that the orally administered enzymes

> developed by Dr. Gonzalez and his colleagues had

> profound health-promoting and anticancer effects.

>

> In this study, pancreatic cancer was first grafted

> into nude mice, rodents whose lack of a functioning

> immune system allows them to serve as living

> laboratories for the study of cancer. The mice were

> then treated with porcine (pig) pancreatic enzyme

> extracts (PPE) that were included in their drinking

> water. A control group received no enzyme

> supplements.

>

> Treated mice " survived significantly longer than the

> control group, " according to Murat Saruc, MD, and

> colleagues at the Eppley Institute for Research in

> Cancer and Allied Diseases in Omaha. Additionally,

> tumors in the PPE-treated group " were significantly

> smaller than in the control group. " All mice in the

> control group showed abnormalities of metabolism in

> the early stages of tumor growth, " whereas only a

> few in the treated group showed some of these

> abnormalities at the final stage. " The authors

> concluded that treatment with pancreatic enzymes

> " significantly prolongs the survival of mice… and

> slows the tumor growth. " (Saruc, 2004).

>

> Similar claims about pancreatic enzymes have been

> made for nearly a century. However this was a

> rigorously conducted scientific study that was peer

> reviewed and published in the official journal of

> the American Pancreatic Association and the Japan

> Pancreas Society.

>

> For years opponents of alternative medicine have

> argued that enzymes taken by mouth would be broken

> down in the stomach and inactivated before being

> able to do much good at all. This point of view was

> thoroughly refuted in 2002 when three physiologists

> at the University of California-San Francisco showed

> that digestive enzymes can be absorbed into blood,

> reabsorbed by the pancreas, and reutilized, instead

> of being reduced to their constituent amino acids in

> the intestines. This is called an enteropancreatic

> circulation of digestive enzymes (Rothman 2002). But

> clearly news of this established fact hasn’t reached

> the implacable opponents of complementary medicine.

> For instance, an attack on the work of Dr. Gonzalez,

> reprinted at the Quackwatch website, states:

>

> " Like all dietary proteins, enzymes are dismantled

> into constituent amino acids by host proteolytic

> enzymes in the gastrointestinal tract, thus

> destroying their enzymatic activity " (Green 1998).

>

> This bucket-of-cold-water argument has now been

> thoroughly undercut by yet another careful

> scientific study. We are often warned of the harmful

> effects of unduly favorable statements about food

> supplements. But what about unduly negative

> statements? It was because of such dogmatic

> statements on the alleged destruction of enzymes in

> the stomach that thousands of people have been

> dissuaded from taking enzymes. Now we learn that

> certain enzymes can not only survive the stomach but

> can enter the bloodstream in their active form.

> However I have yet to hear a word of correction or

> apology from the self-proclaimed refuters of CAM

> cancer treatments on this important topic.

>

> Enzymes are an endlessly fascinating and extremely

> promising area of medicine, including CAM. They are

> a natural part of most raw foods and are created by

> our bodies to aid digestion. Explored and then

> forgotten, they have been repeatedly rediscovered

> around the world. I have mentioned the Asian work

> with earthworm enzymes. In England, not long after

> Darwin’s time, a brilliant embryologist at the

> University of Edinburgh, John Beard, PhD, first

> suggested the use of pancreatic enzymes as a

> treatment for cancer. He even wrote a book in 1911

> called The Enzyme Treatment of Cancer. He got little

> for his pains but trouble at the hands of a furious

> medical profession. Today his work is all but

> forgotten.

>

> For my earlier discussion of the John Beard enzyme

> theory, click or go to:

> http://www.cancerdecisions.com/062602.html

>

> In the US in the 1950s and 60s, a doctor named

> Frank. L. Shively, MD, of Dayton, Ohio used a

> similar approach. He reported excellent results in

> human patients using injected enzymes. When he tried

> to convince his colleagues of the efficacy of this

> treatment he was stymied. Being unable to find a

> regular publisher, Shively self-published a long

> typewritten manuscript on this approach, The

> Multiple Proteolytic Enzyme Therapy of Cancer, with

> documentation of many successes. He was scorned by

> most of his medical colleagues. Today he is almost

> completely unknown and copies of his manuscript are

> very rare. (I have one of the few existing copies.)

>

> In Germany, where natural treatments are widely

> accepted by the medical profession, the use of

> enzymes has been more favorably regarded. Much of

> this goes back to the post-World War II-era work of

> Max Wolf, MD, and his disciple, Karl Ransberger,

> PhD, who together wrote the classic book, Enzyme

> Therapy. Together they founded Mucos Pharma to

> market enzyme products, such as the celebrated

> Wobenzyme. A visit to the bookstore at the annual

> Medicine Week meeting in Baden-Baden reveals

> numerous titles in German on the same topic. Almost

> every European clinic that I have visited

> enthusiastically embraces some form of enzyme

> therapy.

>

> Yet the use of digestive enzymes remains almost

> completely unknown to most conventional oncologists

> in the US. For instance, during the past eleven

> years (1994-2004) there have been tens of thousands

> of presentations on a wide variety of other topics

> at the annual meetings of the American Society of

> Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Yet in that time there has

> not been a single study on the topic presented at

> ASCO.

>

> According to Clifton Leaf, executive editor of

> Fortune magazine, since 1971 America has spent $200

> billion on the war on cancer—with precious little to

> show for it.

>

> Click or go here for a discussion of Clifton Leaf’s

> article on why we are losing the war on cancer:

>

>

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/articles/0,15114,598425,00.html

>

> Of this massive sum, only $1.4 million has been

> spent on the Gonzalez trial and it took a

> considerable political struggle to get even that

> single grant approved. The Gonzalez trial moves at a

> snail’s pace for lack of cooperation on the part of

> conventional oncologists. Every attempt to expose

> this imbalance in research priorities is met with

> defensiveness on the part of the cancer

> establishment. This serves to further isolate

> proponents of innovative methods, such as enzymes,

> from the scientific mainstream. In other words, huge

> sums are poured into dead-end pharmacological

> solutions, while potential alternatives for cancer

> are dismissed out of hand as " unproven methods " .

>

> It is an intolerable situation.

>

> But rest assured, one of these days the worm is

> going to turn.

>

>

>

> --Ralph W. Moss, PhD

>

> =======================

>

>

> References

>

>

> Beard, J. The Enzyme Treatment of Cancer and its

> Scientific Basis. London: Chatto & Windus, 1911.

>

> Darwin, Charles. The Formation of Vegetable Mould

> Through the Action of Worms (1881). Available from:

>

>

http://charles-darwin.classic-literature.co.uk/formation-of-vegetable-mould/

>

> Green, S. Nicholas Gonzalez treatment for cancer:

> Gland extracts, coffee enemas, vitamin megadoses,

> and diets. The Scientific Review of Alternative

> Medicine 1998;2(2):25-30.

>

> Hwang CM, Kim DI, Huh SH, Min BG, Park JH, Han JS,

> Lee BB, Kim YI, Ryu ES, Kim JW. In vivo evaluation

> of lumbrokinase, a fibrinolytic enzyme extracted

> from Lumbricus rubellus, in a prosthetic vascular

> graft. J Cardiovasc Surg (Torino). 2002

> Dec;43(6):891-4.

>

> Jin L, Jin H, Zhang G, Xu G. Changes in coagulation

> and tissue plasminogen activator after the treatment

> of cerebral infarction with lumbrokinase. Clin

> Hemorheol Microcirc. 2000;23(2-4):213-8.

>

> Mihara H, Maruyama M, Sumi H. Novel thrombolytic

> therapy discovered from traditional oriental

> medicine using the earthworm. Southeast Asian J Trop

> Med Public Health. 1992;23 Suppl 2:131-40.

>

> Rothman S, Liebow C, Isenman L. Conservation of

> digestive enzymes. Physiol Rev. 2002 Jan;82(1):1-18.

> Review.

>

> Sakalova A, Kunze R, Holomanova D, Hapalova J,

> Chorvath B, Mistrik M, Sedlak J. [Density of

> adhesive proteins after oral administration of

> proteolytic enzymes in multiple myeloma] Vnitr Lek.

> 1995 Dec;41(12):822-6. Slovak.

>

> Saruc M, Standop S, Standop J, et al. Pancreatic

> enzyme extract improves survival in murine

> pancreatic cancer. Pancreas. 2004 May;28(4):401-12.

>

> Shively, Franklin H. Multiple Proteolytic Enzyme

> Therapy for Cancer. Administered by Intravenous

> Infusions. Dayton, OH: Johnson-Watson Printing and

> Bookbinding Co., 1969.

>

> ---------------

> 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.

>

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