Antibody therapy and mistletoe therapy

A study from health services research in 43 cancer patients combining monoclonal antibodies (mAB) with Helixor® showed the safety of this regimen. The probability of side effects occurring was five times higher in the mAB therapy arm than under the combinational mAB-mistletoe therapy [65]. 

In vitro experiments have also shown that mistletoe extracts do not inhibit the cytostatic effects of the trastuzumab antibody used in breast cancer. The Her-2 positive human breast cancer cell line SK-BR-3 was exposed to different concentrations of trastuzumab and combined with Iscador M in clinically relevant doses. No inhibition of the anticancer effect of trastuzumab was found, but an additive anti-tumour effect was determined by the combination of both drugs. No interaction is to be expected with simultaneous administration [66].

A further real-world data study on 310 tumour patients showed that the number of treatment discontinuations in standard therapy with monoclonal antibodies could be significantly reduced by 50% through additional mistletoe therapy [67]. The same applied to targeted therapies, e.g. with tyrosine kinase inhibitors, in which the additional mistletoe therapy also had positive effects [67]. 

 

Last update: June 16th, 2023/AT1

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