Aug 11, 2005 – Shark cartilage is said to be ineffective in treating colorectal cancer and advanced breast cancer. It could even cause several side effects. This is what the results of a study reveal1 published in the July issue of Cancer, a publication of the American Cancer Society.
The double-blind trial was conducted on 83 people with advanced breast cancer or colorectal cancer, deemed incurable. All continued to benefit from the usual health care, including chemotherapy for some. Some were given shark cartilage, others a placebo, three or four times a day. Result: no difference in the survival time of the subjects, whether or not they took a shark cartilage supplement.
Importantly, the researchers had to stop their work since after only a month, about half of the patients in both groups had abandoned the treatment. The quality of life had deteriorated in those taking shark cartilage (Benefin®). The side effects were numerous: diarrhea, heartburn, pain in the back, joints and limbs as well as reduced number of white blood cells (cells of the immune system). Only 10% of subjects continued for more than six months.
Shark cartilage supplement became very popular around the turn of the 1990s. Popular belief is that sharks do not suffer from cancer because their body is made up, for the most part, of cartilage. Which would not be quite fair. Although the prevalence is low, some forms of cancer are present in species of sharks.
Shark cartilage has the property of slowing the formation of new blood capillaries (antiangiogenesis), according to studies carried out on animals and in in vitro culture. Slowing down such a physiological process would be tantamount to stopping the progression of the cancer. This new clinical trial therefore tends to demonstrate that shark cartilage would have no beneficial effect in humans.
Johanne Lauzon – PasseportSanté.net
1. Loprinzi CL, Levitt R, et al. Evaluation of shark cartilage in patients with advanced cancer, Cancer, United States, 2005.
