Vitamin A produces astonishing leukemia cure rate, without chemotherapy

[Guest guest]

Croft Woodruff

 

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Vitamin A produces astonishing leukemia cure rate, even without

chemotherapy

New research conducted at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson

Cancer Center shows that vitamin A cures as many as 33% of patients

with a rare form of leukemia -- without using chemotherapy. In the

study, the vitamin A was being delivered inside " bubbles of fat " to

enhance bioavailability. Out of 34 patients participating in the

trial, an astonishing 10 remained cancer-free after five years,

despite receiving no chemotherapy.

 

So what's the real story here? Researchers are calling this form of

vitamin A a " drug, " which seems odd, since it's just vitamin A.

Perhaps they don't want to admit that a vitamin is better than

chemotherapy for curing cancer. And this is definitely a cure -- that

term is even being used by the researchers here. To take a group of

cancer patients and watch them remain cancer-free for five years is

nothing short of astonishing, especially since they were only taking

one vitamin. Imagine how well they'd do if they also consumed

chlorella (a strong anti-cancer superfood), spirulina (another

superfood containing phytochemicals known to destroy breast cancer

tumors), graviola (an Amazonian herb known for its powerful ability to

destroy cancer cells), licorice root (a more popular anti-cancer herb)

and other health-promoting foods and supplements. With the help of

this collection of health-promoting substances, the cure rate could

have easily risen to 75% or more.

 

Still, that's just a guess. Organized medicine isn't really interested

in studying things that don't generate profits, and herbs and

superfoods certainly fall into that category. But it is exciting to

see vitamin A having such a dramatic, positive impact on patients with

leukemia who might otherwise be subjected to chemotherapy. And perhaps

someday these researchers will have the courage to admit that it's a

vitamin, not a drug, that's working the healing magic here.

 

Overview:

 

* A biological agent --- a drug that wraps vitamin A inside

bubbles of fat --- used without chemotherapy appears to offer as many

as one-third of patients with a rare form of leukemia an opportunity

for a long-term, disease-free future, say researchers at The

University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

* Researchers say the findings, presented at the annual meeting of

the American Society of Clinical Oncology, provide the proof that

biologic drugs can work in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia

(APL), and opens the door to development of such agents for more

common forms of leukemia.

* " This is the first time we have seen patients with an acute

leukemia potentially cured without use of chemotherapy, " says the

study principal investigator, Elihu Estey, M.D., a professor in the

Department of Leukemia.

 

 

Source: http://www.news-medical.net/view_article.asp?id=2248

 

 

 

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A biological agent used without chemotherapy appears to offer a

disease-free future to patients with rare leukemia

Posted By: News-Medical in Pharmaceutical News

Published: Monday, 7-Jun-2004

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A biological agent ­ a drug that wraps vitamin A inside bubbles of fat

­ used without chemotherapy appears to offer as many as one-third of

patients with a rare form of leukemia an opportunity for a long-term,

disease-free future, say researchers at The University of Texas M. D.

Anderson Cancer Center.

 

Researchers say the findings, presented at the annual meeting of the

American Society of Clinical Oncology, provide the proof that biologic

drugs can work in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL),

and opens the door to development of such agents for more common forms

of leukemia.

 

" This is the first time we have seen patients with an acute leukemia

potentially cured without use of chemotherapy, " says the study

principal investigator, Elihu Estey, M.D., a professor in the

Department of Leukemia. " That's an important development in the field

of leukemia, because traditional treatment with chemotherapy often

produces side effects, even death, in patients with different kinds of

leukemia than the one studied here. "

 

The researcher presenting the results at ASCO is Apostolia Maria

Tsimberidou, M.D., Ph.D., an instructor in the Department of Leukemia.

 

In the small trial, approximately one-third of patients were found to

be disease free for more than five years using the drug, Lipo-ATRA.

 

Lipo-ATRA is a lipidized form of the drug ATRA (all-trans retinoic

acid), which was originally studied in China in patients with APL.

ATRA is a form of vitamin A that was found to help patients diagnosed

with APL, a malignancy of the bone marrow in which a genetic

translocation leads to production of an excess of immature cells. The

vitamin A derivative helps push the cells to mature.

 

Traditional treatment of APL combines ATRA, taken by mouth, with the

chemotherapy drug, idarubicin. But realizing that little of the

vitamin A is absorbed when swallowed, M. D. Anderson researchers

worked to encase ATRA inside bubbles of fat.

 

" When you put ATRA in a lipid carrier and inject it, it is not

metabolized and stays longer in tissues, " says a researcher who helped

develop the treatment, Gabriel Lopez-Berestein, M.D., a professor in

the Department of Experimental Therapeutics.

 

In the Phase II clinical trial being reported, patients received

Lipo-ATRA for three months and then continued to receive the drug

without chemotherapy as long as their bone marrow showed no evidence

of the characteristic molecular signature of APL. If this marker was

found, chemotherapy was added.

 

Of the 34 patients who received Lipo-ATRA, ten remain in remission for

an average of five years, despite never receiving chemotherapy. Many

of the patients who needed to receive chemotherapy also remain in

remission " such that the overall proportion of patients cured

approximates that seen with oral ATRA plus chemotherapy, with,

however, fewer patients receiving chemotherapy, " says Estey.

 

http://www.mdanderson.org