Mistletoe therapy for cancer

Today, more than two thirds of cancer patients use naturopathic medicinal products and methods in addition to conventional therapies. The most frequently used herbal medicinal products are mistletoe preparations.

Mistletoe therapy is possible and advisable in many tumour diseases. We have summarized the most important study results since 2000 for various types of cancer.

You can start mistletoe therapy at any time – before surgery, afterwards or at a later point in the course of the disease. It can also be combined well with other therapies – this applies to chemotherapy, hormone and antibody therapies as well as targeted therapies or radiation. It does not weaken them, but rather enhances their effect.

For most types of cancer many clinical studies demonstrate that mistletoe therapy is safe to use, well tolerated and there are only a few contraindications. It improves the quality of life and reduces the side effects of other therapies and – in particular in an integrative therapy concept – it may also contribute to prolonging survival.

On these pages you will find everything you need to know about the effects of mistletoe therapy on cancer as well as its side effects and contraindications, reimbursement, what preparations are available, what constituents they contain, how they should be stored and how they differ from each other.

We have provided for you the most frequently asked questions and answers in a compact format for quick orientation, as well as interesting facts about growth and development along with specific characteristics of the mistletoe plant.

Mistletoe therapy is not approved for the treatment of leukaemia or lymphoma and in general for tumour treatment in children. In these cases, mistletoe therapy is carried out off-label, which means with the consent of the patients or parents and on the responsibility of the treating physician. However, add-on mistletoe for children has been shown to be safe.

Last update:Juney 16th, 2023/AT1