’Sharks don’t get cancer’, so the story goes. Who knows?
Sharks have no bones, only flexible cartilage. By taking this cartilage and pummelling it carefully, so that it breaks down without disrupting the active protein chains, treatments have been prepared from the resulting powder.
The action of the protein is claimed to prevent or reduce the growth of cancers. It does this by restricting the blood supply to the cancer - it is called angeniosis (remember a tumour over 1cm needs its own blood supply).
The first work was done by Henry Brem and Judah Folkman back in the 1970s at Johns Hopkins Cancer Center. Further work was carried out by Robert Langer.
The logic was more that shark cartilage - indeed, cartilage in general - has no blood supplies and thus perhaps there was something in it that could restrict blood supply to cancers. Early tests were actually not limited to shark cartilage, and Bovine and even Rabbit cartilage was also used with limited effect.
Next a man called Carl Luer thought he would expose sharks to a highly dangerous aflatoxin. They didn’t get cancer. Hardly conclusive, but picked up by Dr. William Lane who wrote a book in 1992 called ’Sharks don’t get cancer - How shark cartilage could save your life’.
However after positive TV documentaries in the USA about the properly prepared protein chains, many firms rushed out mass market supplements and capsules.
Critics claim with some justification that, even if these contained the right purified active ingredient as undamaged, correct length protein chains, cancer sufferers would need to take almost a whole bottle per day!! There is a world of difference between a clinic hand producing a protein or peptide chain and a factory churning out bottles of shark cartilage pills. The Doctor who did all the original work and was featured in the TV documentary has himself poured scorn on the mass market equivalents. Be warned!!
There seems to be no randomised clinical trial showing any effect of Shark Cartilage with advanced cancer.
There is a little research suggesting an effect in Kaposi’s sarcoma, a cancer most usually found in people with HIV.
There is a little evidence that a particular extract (Neovastat) may help with macular degeneration and even kidney cancer. But the research seems thin.
It is used by some clinics in its correct and pure form and apparently does show a positive effect on restricting the blood supply to tumours. But then so do garlic and soya isoflavones and a number of more easily (and cheaply) obtained natural compounds and foods.
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Please be clear: At CANCERactive we do not consider the above compound to be a cure for cancer, despite what the research says or experts doing the research may claim. The above, is an article on the compound from published research and expert opinion in the public domain. At CANCERactive we do not believe that any single compound (drug, vitamin, whatever) is a cure for cancer. We believe that people can significantly increase their personal odds of survival by building an Integrated Programme of treatments. Equally, cancer prevention is best practiced through a width of measures.