THE MOSS REPORTS Newsletter (11/21/04)

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THE MOSS REPORTS Newsletter (11/21/04)

 

 

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

Newsletter #159 11/21/04

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THE MOSS REPORTS

 

 

It seems that never a week goes by without the emergence of some new

panacea in a bottle. The Internet has proved to be the perfect medium for

the promotion of such concoctions. The past few years have seen wave

after wave of miracle juices – noni, mangosteen, and now goji.

 

How much truth is there to the claims that are so confidently put

forward for these products? Do they really prevent cancer, promote

longevity and overcome chronic illnesses? Or are they simply juices,

extracts

of exotic fruits with modest nutritional worth and exorbitant price

tags?

 

Sorting truth from fiction has been the focus of my life's work. For

the past thirty years I have studied the field of cancer therapy,

investigating the claims made for the effectiveness of both

conventional and

alternative treatments. I have written The Moss Reports, a series of

detailed reports on the treatment of over 230 different kinds of

cancer. For a cancer patient, a Moss Report represents an invaluable

guide

and handbook for the journey ahead.

 

If you would like to order a Moss Report for yourself or someone you

love, you can do so from our website, www.cancerdecisions.com, or by

calling Diane at 1-800-980-1234 (814-238-3367 from outside the US).

 

We look forward to helping you.

 

 

 

A FRIENDLY SKEPTIC LOOKS AT GOJI

 

 

At a popular cancer meeting in September I was assailed by sellers of a

bottled drink made from goji. In my ignorance, I had never heard of

this drink, but was assured by a bright-eyed young salesperson that it

was

more powerful and better tasting than yesterday's sensation, XanGo. So

I tasted the goji juice blend she offered me, and guess what? It really

was delicious! Sweet and sour. Complex and intriguing. If goji ever

filters down to my supermarket, I definitely intend to buy some.

 

But apparently goji is more than just a refreshing beverage. According

to one website it is the " number one-rated, third party tested and

validated, patent-pending, single focus functional health tonic

designed to

deliver you incredible health benefits. " The very name of the website

(http://www.beyoungnow.com/) gives some idea of the extravagant

benefits they are talking about.

 

The hype for goji is way over the top. " If You Found The Fountain Of

Youth...Would You Stop To Take A Drink? " asks one website. Dr. Earl

Mindell, a pharmacist who describes himself as " the world's leading

nutritionist, " wrote a pamphlet in which he tells the story of Li Qing

Yuen,

who supposedly lived to be 252 years old. The source of this longevity?

You guessed it: goji. Dr. Mindell calls his story " a powerful testimony

to [this] remarkable berry… " (Mindell 2003).

 

Dr. Mindell has formulated his own version of goji that, he says, is

nearly identical to " the original Himalayan goji berries used for

centuries by ancient healers! " (http://www.bestliquidvitamins.com/)

 

Another website calls its version of goji " the most nutritionally dense

nutritional source on the planet, " and calls it " among the most revered

of sexual tonic herbs " in Asia. Echoing the classic movie " Doctor

Strangelove, " it promises to increase " sexual fluids and enhance

fertility. "

 

As with XanGo and noni juice, two earlier " functional juice " fads, the

reason people are willing to pay this much money is not simply because

of the product's exotic taste, but because they believe that these

juices may do something extraordinary for their health. In addition to

making you a stud at age 120, the alleged benefits of the juice include

fighting cancer, improving the function of the immune system, and

decreasing the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation.

 

 

Effects on Cancer

 

 

Another website tells us that in China, " researchers claim that the

goji berry is beyond a prevention for cancer, but reveal [sic] that it is

a cure for cancer! " (http://www.hepalta.com/tools_for_health/goji.html)

 

" Tibetan Goji berries are now undergoing intense scrutiny as a cancer

drug in Mongolia, China, Japan and Switzerland, " says another.

(http://www.eatraw.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=er024)

 

" The Himalayan Goji Berry can add 20 years to your life, shut down

cancer cells, supercharge your immune system and rev up your love life!

Believe it or Not, " says yet another website.

(http://members.aol.com/jbozung/gojijuice.htm)

 

Alas, such " incredible health benefits " come at a price. In its current

incarnation as a " functional food, " goji is still expensive. A

self-described " number-one rated " goji product sells for $44 per liter

bottle,

plus shipping. (Discounts are available for those who join a marketing

network, and cheaper versions are available over the Internet.)

 

 

What is Goji?

 

 

The pitches I heard at the cancer meeting certainly promised patients

that goji would impart great health benefits. But is this reasonable to

expect?

 

Goji (gouqi or gou qi zi) is the Chinese name for a number of different

species. It usually refers to varieties of Lycium, called in English

wolfberry, matrimony vine, or Chinese boxthorn. Lycium is an evergreen

shrub that is often spiny and grows in temperate and subtropical regions.

The two species most commonly used in folk medicine are Lycium chinense

or Lycium barbarum, both in the nightshade (Solanaceae) family.

 

The fruit is the main source of medicinal extracts, although the leaves

are also sometimes consumed as food. Traditionally, in various

cultures, goji has been used to treat inflammations, skin irritations,

nosebleeds and aches and pains, and has also been used as a sedative

(Dafni

1994). In China, it is often used in combination with other botanicals to

treat poor vision, anemia, and cough (Bensky 1993). In the test-tube, a

polysaccharide (complex sugar) isolated from goji has been shown to

have anti-cancer effects (Gan 2001). It also has some immune enhancing

properties (Gan 2003). Goji seems to be able to increase the therapeutic

effects of radiation (i.e., to act as a radiosensitizer), at least in

mice (Lu 1991).

 

Lycium chinense originates in Hebei province in China, the area around

Beijing. Its berries are small, orange to light red in color and have

many seeds. They are too sour to eat on their own, and so are added to

other foods (Mindell 2003).

 

The more commonly utilized goji berry is Lycium barbarum. This plant

originates in Tibet and Inner Mongolia. Apparently, various places

compete for the title of " Goji Capital of the World. " Some people say

this is

Ningxia, situated in northwest China along the Yellow River. According

to Dr. Mindell, " Ningxia goji berries are a real treat. The fruits are

large and plump, with a beautiful deep red color, few seeds and an

exquisitely sweet taste and juicy texture. "

 

According to Dr. Mindell, however, the best goji berries actually come

from Xinjiang, a huge region at the very Western corner of China,

bordering Tibet and Mongolia.

 

To view a drawing of goji, from Prof. Dr. OttoWilhelm Thomé's Flora von

Deutschland Österreich und der Schweiz, click or go to:

http://www.cancerdecisions.com/images/tafel.jpg

 

 

The Evidence

 

 

There is plenty of charming folklore surrounding the goji berry. But

the real question is whether there is compelling enough evidence to

justify spending $44 for a bottle of fruit juice.

 

PubMed, the US government's comprehensive database of 15 million

medical journal citations, lists a total of 102 articles on Lycium

species.

Fifty of these are on Lycium barbarum. Most of these concern laboratory

tests, and only five articles even mention cancer. If we restrict our

consideration to just clinical trials (structured studies involving

human subjects) there are precisely two. One is irrelevant to our

purposes,

since it does not concern cancer (Breithaupt 2004).

 

 

A Single Report

 

 

This leaves a single report of a clinical trial in cancer using a goji

extract. It was carried out by G.W. Cao and colleagues at the Second

Military Medical University in Shanghai and published in a Chinese

medical publication, the Chinese Journal of Oncology. Seventy-nine

patients

with advanced cancer were enrolled in a trial in which they were treated

with lymphocyte-activated killer (LAK) cells + interleukin-2 (IL-2).

But some of the patients also received polysaccharides (complex sugars)

derived from Lycium barbarum (abbreviated LBP).

 

Initial results of the treatment from 75 evaluable patients indicated

that " objective regression of cancer was achieved in patients with

malignant melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, colorectal carcinoma, lung

cancer,

nasopharyngeal carcinoma. " It also was supposedly effective in

" malignant hydrothorax " (which presumably refers to pleural effusion, a

collection of fluid within the chest cavity which frequently accompanies

thoracic cancers).

 

According to this Chinese article, the response rate of patients

treated with LAK + IL-2 alone was 16.1 percent. But when goji extract was

given to some patients the response rate jumped to 40.9 percent. The

authors also state that the remission in patients treated with LAK + IL-2

plus goji extract lasted significantly longer and led to a more marked

increase in natural killer (NK) cell activity than LAK + IL-2 alone.

 

" The results indicate that LBP can be used as an adjuvant in the

biotherapy [i.e., immunotherapy] of cancer, " the authors concluded.

 

This is a potentially important finding. A juice that can double the

response rate to standard cancer treatment would be worth many multiples

of $44. However, there remain numerous questions about this clinical

trial that might be difficult to answer, since all there is to go on is

an abstract in PubMed. The full article is in a Chinese journal that

does not maintain an English-language website. Dr. Gao is the

co-author of

just seven PubMed articles, none of which gives his contact

information.

 

If, however, I could interview Dr. Gao here are some of the questions I

would ask:

 

How many patients were treated in each group?

What exactly is your standard for an " objective regression " ?

How much longer did the remissions last in the goji-added group than

the control group?

Was there any effect on disease-free or overall survival?

Have there been any follow-up studies using goji with drugs in a single

form of the disease?

 

Additionally, this Chinese study uses a non-standard therapy for many

of these cases, i.e. LAK + IL-2. This was a " hot " therapy in the 1980s

and early 1990s, primarily because of the advocacy of Steven Rosenberg,

MD, of the National Cancer Institute (Rosenberg 1993). But is rarely

used today. Indeed, the NCI has stated that the addition of LAK to IL-2

has " not improved response rates or durable remissions sufficiently to

merit the expense and complexity of this therapy " (NCI 2004). Even the

NCI's clinical trials database (www.clinicaltrials.gov) does not list a

current clinical trial using these once popular treatments (Kimura

1997). So this small goji trial uses an outdated therapy. It would,

however, be interesting to see what goji extract could do when added

to the

current treatment for a group of patients with biopsy-confirmed cancer of

a single type.

 

Therefore, although I am intrigued by Dr. Gao's findings, I would still

recommend that patients hold onto their $44 until there is better

documentation of the drink's purported effects. By comparison to goji,

something as simple as green tea looks to have an equal or even better

effect at about one-hundredth of the cost. Over 1,000 articles on tea and

cancer have already been published in the medical literature, of which 19

refer to randomized, controlled trials. A study published in February,

2004 showed that when heavy smokers drank four cups of green tea per

day for four months there was a significant decrease in a urinary marker

of DNA damage (Hakim 2004). Green tea might also be beneficial for

those undergoing conventional treatment for cancer, although that is far

from proven.

 

The network marketeers are hoping we will go chasing after goji, in

mankind's never ending quest for a magic potion to cure our most

persistent ills. However, we would be far better off to let science be

our

guide. There are more effective, better proven, and certainly less

expensive

alternatives available to all.

 

Caution: Every indication is that goji is safe to drink in moderation.

However, there is one exception to that rule. Like some other natural

products, it may have anti-coagulant activity. While this is generally

desirable, it could lead to a dangerous situation for anyone who is

taking the prescription medication Warfarin (coumadin). One should

therefore be careful about taking the two together, as this could lead to

dangerous episodes of bleeding (Lam 2001).

 

 

 

--Ralph W. Moss, PhD

 

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References:

 

 

Breithaupt DE, Weller P, Wolters M, Hahn A. Comparison of plasma

responses in human subjects after the ingestion of 3R,3R'-zeaxanthin

dipalmitate from wolfberry (Lycium barbarum) and non-esterified

3R,3R'-zeaxanthin using chiral high-performance liquid chromatography.

Br J Nutr.

2004;91:707-13.

 

Cao GW, Yang WG, Du P. [Observation of the effects of LAK/IL-2 therapy

combining with Lycium barbarum polysaccharides in the treatment of 75

cancer patients] Zhonghua Zhong Liu Za Zhi. 1994;16:428-31.

 

Dafni A,.Yaniv Z. Solanaceae as medicinal plants in Israel. J

Ethnopharmacol. 1994;44:11-8.

 

Gan L, Wang J, Zhang S. [inhibition the growth of human leukemia cells

by Lycium barbarum polysaccharide]. Wei Sheng Yan Jiu. 2001;30:333-5.

 

Gan L, Zhang SH, Liu Q, Xu HB. A polysaccharide-protein complex from

Lycium barbarum upregulates cytokine expression in human peripheral blood

mononuclear cells. Eur J Pharmacol. 2003;471:217-22.

 

Hakim IA, Harris RB, Chow HH, Dean M, Brown S, Ali IU. Effect of a

4-month tea intervention on oxidative DNA damage among heavy smokers:

role

of glutathione S-transferase genotypes. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers

Prev. 2004;13:242-9.

 

Huang Y, Tan A, Shen Y, Lu J. [scavenging effect of total flavonoids of

lycium barbarum L on active oxygen radicals and inhibitory effects on

heat output from L1210 cells] Wei Sheng Yan Jiu. 1998;27:109-11, 115.

 

Kimura H, Yamaguchi Y. A phase III randomized study of interleukin-2

lymphokine-activated killer cell immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy

or radiotherapy after curative or noncurative resection of primary lung

carcinoma. Cancer. 1997;80:42-9.

 

Lam AY, Elmer GW, Mohutsky MA. Possible interaction between warfarin

and Lycium barbarum L. Ann Pharmacother. 2001;35:1199-201.

 

Liu XL, Sun JY, Li HY, Zhang L, Qian BC. [Extraction and isolation of

active component for inhibiting PC3 cell proliferation in vitro from the

fruit of Lycium barbarum L.] Zhongguo Zhong Yao Za Zhi. 2000;25:481-3.

 

Lu CX, Cheng BQ. [Radiosensitizing effects of Lycium barbarum

polysaccharide for Lewis lung cancer] Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Za Zhi.

1991;11:611-2,

582.

 

Rosenberg SA, Lotze MT, Yang JC, et al. Prospective randomized trial of

high-dose interleukin-2 alone or in conjunction with

lymphokine-activated killer cells for the treatment of patients with

advanced cancer. J

Natl Cancer Inst. 1993 ;85:622-32.

 

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