Alternative Cancer Treatments - Careseng

For thousands of years Ginseng (Panax Quinquefolium L.) preparations have been used for health remedies.

Careseng came to market in 2001. It contains the concentrated extract of several anti-cancer compounds found in ginseng, a herb with a long history of use in traditional Chinese medicine. Cell culture studies on breast, liver, colon, prostate, lung, pancreatic, and brain cancer cells have shown that the ginseng extract induces death (technically known as apoptosis) in cancer cells.

Two preliminary clinical studies on Careseng also show a significant inhibition of cancer growth. What is more, no adverse side effects have been reported due to the use of Careseng.

The two main active anti-cancer agents in Careseng are Rh2 and a variety of plant compounds known as dammarane sapogenins, found especially in the araliaceae (a large family of mostly tropical shrubs and trees, of which ginseng is one). Cell culture studies of dammarane sapogenins demonstrate that in addition to inducing cell death, they can also inhibit cancer cell proliferation, induce differentiation of cancer cells into a benign form, and block the function a protein (P-glycoprotein) found in cancer cells which is responsible for multi-drug resistance. Thus the efficacy of chemotherapy drugs is enhanced. There are also other possible anti-cancer effects.

Careseng was developed by the Canadian pharmaceutical company Pegasus Pharmaceuticals Group, Inc and is availanle through Pegasus Lifecare, Inc.

Please note that I am providing this information for educational purposes only. The history and application of Ginseng is a fascinating one and so I encourage further study of this product. If anyone has experience of using it, beneficially or otherwise, as either a patient or medical practitioner, please let me know.

Cancer Drugs - Cause for Alarm

Dr Mercola has just notified me of some interesting reading in USA Today. We already know that traditional cancer medications are incredibly expensive, but perhaps these recent articles from USA today might bring the point home to some of the many remaining believers in conventional treatments.

Let’s face it, medication costs of up to $10,000 per month (Erbitux) are no small change, and now the insurance companies are sounding alarm bells. It looks like the cost of a typical cancer drug prescription rose almost 16% last year, compared with 3% for other prescriptions. The average cost of a 1-month prescription for cancer drugs is now nearly $1,600. And this isn’t including drugs such as Avastin (typical cost $4,400 a month), which can be given at a doctor's office.

Avastin is a newer drug used to treat colorectal cancer and that costs about $50,000 a year. If it is approved to treat lung and breast cancers, that cost could easily double to around $100,000 a year. And let’s face it, rising costs of treating cancer affect almost everybody, simply because most cancer patients are covered by government insurance schemes.

And if truth be known, most new cancer drugs will improve survival by only a few weeks or months. For example, although Erbitux costs almost $10,000 a month, studies have failed to show that it helps patients live longer.

In addition, many of the new cancer drugs work only when combined with chemotherapy. So adding drugs such as Erbitux and Avastin to existing therapies serves not only to increase costs but also side effects. What is more, patients today still don't live significantly longer on many of the new medications. For example, survival of patients with advanced colon cancer has increased from one year to about two years over the past decade. Of course, the patients themselves might well disagree about the significance of this! Yet in the cold light of reality, in terms of the investment made, the return looks somewhat poor.

So what am I trying to say here? That’s right – much more effort ought to be placed in getting details of some of the highly effective alternative cancer treatments out to physicians, hospitals and the public at large. I think that perhaps many insurance companies might now agree.

You can read the full stories here:

USA Today - 07/10/2006
USA Today - 07/11/2006

And here’s what Dr Mercola has to say about it:
Exploiting Cancer Patients With $10,000-a-Month Drugs