Herbal cancer remedy is chock full of drugs. (Biomedicine).An herbal remedy that had been popular among prostate cancer prostate cancer, cancer originating in the prostate gland. Prostate cancer is the leading malignancy in men in the United States and is second only to lung cancer as a cause of cancer death in men. patients was tainted with three synthetic drugs, according to an analysis of batches of the remedy made between 1996 and 2001. The product, called PC-SPES, has since been recalled by its California-based manufacturer, BotanicLab, which has gone out of business. Researchers became curious when seriously ill patients taking PC-SPES began to fare better than expected. However, lab experiments showed that the known herbal ingredients in PC-SPES all failed individually to have much success killing prostate cancer cells, says study coauthor Robert Nagourney, a medical oncologist medical oncologist Oncology An oncologist who diagnoses and treats cancer with chemotherapy, hormones, biologicals, or immunologic agents; the MO becomes a cancer Pt's de facto primary care giver, and coordinates treatment provided by other specialists. at the University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). , Irvine and Rational Therapeutics in Long Beach. Nagourney and his colleagues chemically analyzed PC-SPES and found diethylstilbestrol diethylstilbestrol: see DES. , or DES, a synthetic estrogen that has been used as an anticancer drug but can cause heart problems. They also found the anti-inflammatory drug indomethacin indomethacin /in·do·meth·a·cin/ (in?do-meth´ah-sin) a nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug; used in the treatment of various rheumatic and nonrheumatic inflammatory conditions, dysmenorrhea, and vascular headache. in the remedy and the blood thinner warfarin warfarin (wôr`fərĭn), anticoagulant used to treat blood clots. In large doses it causes bleeding. Warfarin, mixed with bait, is used in rodent control. warfarin Anticoagulant drug, marketed as Coumadin. . All three drugs normally require a prescription. The researchers report their findings in the Sept. 4 Journal of the National Cancer Institute. As an over-the-counter remedy, PC-SPES posed a health hazard and was rightfully removed from the shelves, Nagourney says. Ironically, he says, the progress seen in some patients taking it suggests that the drug combination might prove valuable as part of an anticancer regimen and should be investigated.--N.S. |
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