Lentinan: clinical benefit in the management of systemic malignancies

Excerpt

Sunagawa et al. [1] have provided interesting data in their recent article. Lentinan may also exert significant anti-neoplastic effects against other systemic malignancies. For instance, lentinan is of clinical benefit in the management of esophageal malignancies. When used in conjunction with other chemotherapeutic agents, such as tegafur, it markedly improved the quality of life in these subjects [2]. In addition, the immune status of these cancer patients was improved, as illustrated by the increase in the serum IL-6 levels. Improvement in the Karnofsky performance scale score was also seen at the same time. In addition, the clinical efficacy of the combination treatment was much greater than that of the single agent treatment. Lentinan is also of clinical benefit against acute myeloid leukemia. For instance, the survival rates were significantly improved when lentinan was used in conjunction with chemotherapeutic agents such as cytarabine [3]. In addition, cancer cachexia was markedly attenuated in these patients. A simultaneous increase in the IL-10 levels was also seen. …