In a recent review I noticed that one of the main handicap of these natural products derived from sharks was that they had not been tested significantly in clinical studies with humans. Can anybody in summary update this knowledge, especially about the results in recent clinical trials with these products?
Thanks Mr, Janus, could you explain a little bit more, please?
NCT00026117 is the clinicaltrials identifier on a study of shark cartilage in breast cancer and colorectal cancer. I haven't seen any results however.
Aeterna-Zentaris got great results with their purified shark cartilage extract called AE-941 in preclinical model of glioblastoma and in phase II for lung and kidney cancer and psoriasis as well. One mistake with the phase 3 for kidney cancer, was the recruitment of patients with advanced disease, presenting metastatic sites and resistant to immunotherapy. I don't know if they realized that the mechanisms of action involved 1) prevention of metastasis (via TIMP like protein) and 2) inflammation of the tumor vessel (via expression of cytokines and leukocyte adhesion molecules).
They also started a phase 3 in lung cancer but could not recruit after the publication of the kidney trial. I studied its anti-angiogenic efficacy in glioblastoma during my PhD. The effect was striking in mice, but tumor bleeding was causing intracranial edema, which afraid the clinicians.
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