Iran makes first herbal anti-cancer drug

[tomjones200824]

Interesting topic- have you encountered it before?

I have come across some interesting information, though I can not understand why I'm having trouble finding controlled studies to evaluate the efficacy of the drug.

The following pg describes the consideration in one piece:

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/183995-Iran-makes-first-herbal-anti-cancer-drug

At first I was as dismissive, as most will be when they read the small script. I then continued to google to do my own investigation, unfortunately, I was VERY limited with search results in both google and google scholar. The following information is what I found, which is limited.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18575066

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6TH7-4GC1RHC-5&_user=10&_coverDate=07%2F31%2F2005&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=gateway&_origin=gateway&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1732292669&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=002db8e9c304e6b00ca69b03a6436120&searchtype=a

I also considered the main component capable of producing the indicated results.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmal

Lastly, I came across the following, which also utilizes the primary component indicated above.

http://www.lurj.org/article.php/vol2n2/hiv.xml

Personal bias and skepticism aside, why is there such little studies available for search retrieval?

Any help or links is appreciated.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

What exactly are you babbling about?

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

Probably because no one is interested in researching it or willing to take the risks and expenses and liability to do real double blind, reliable, reproduceable studies on it. Doing so is expensive and has risk to it. Or they have, and found that the treatment is not as effective as current treatments, has unacceptable toxicities, and good results are not reproduceable.

Perhaps, you should see about investing your time and money into researching it, so that data is available. And preferably, published by better source journals, given that several (not all) of the sources that are cited are notable for their bias against conventional medicine, and preference for "alternatives".

[tomjones200824]

@ Canoehead: If you have to ask you need not reply.

[nurse.sandi]

There is still so much that needs to be researched in cancer drugs. I wanted to do a dissertation on male breast cancer and my own professor told me there was no such thing. I was like what??? Anyway, cancer is still an open book and its treatments.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

in less than 10 seconds, searching under "herbal anti-cancer drug" found following book --- springer publisher well known in academic scientific circles.

evidence-based anticancer herbal medicine [color=#767676]- [color=#767676]william c. s. cho - 2011 - 432 pages

this unique book provides an overview of the anticancer herbal medicines and remedies ...

he's also written:

supportive cancer care with chinese medicine

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

@ Canoehead: If you have to ask you need not reply.

To the OP - the original title of the thread was quite ambiguous, and the post gave very little clue as to what it was about. As many of us are reluctant to click on unknown links of dubious nature from a new poster with little history d/t problems with spam, hacking, viruses, etc. And while the NIH is wellknown, several of your links were from what might be viewed as suspect. Even reading them, would not really give a full view of what you are getting at.

In addition, the poster that you are being rude to is one of the more knowledgeable ones. That poster's response was understandable as there was little detail in your post as to what you were attempting to discuss, and it was quite confusing even with the links, especially with the original title (since changed). The poster was ( while a bit brusque) was trying to find what you were trying to get a across so that others could more appropriately answer you, your response was rather poor and likely to discourage anyone from responding.

Not a good way to start a relationship ... In any venue.

The NIH (as do some other groups) does a number of studies on some popular "alternative" meds. As with anything, the useful meds/supplements get press and discussion, and the less wellknown failures ( or data does not support further studies) do not. Occasionally, if a natural med is much discussed and fails in testing, it gets press but most do not make the major news as the public is not interested, thus the data exists, but does not make publication in public venues.

As to this med, we will see.