Retrospective study of treatment with mistletoe extracts in patients with colorectal cancer

A retrospective study looked at the survival times of all patients with colorectal cancer who were treated with mistletoe extracts at the Outpatient Oncology Clinic of Herdecke Communal Hospital between 1981 and 2001. The data were compared to corresponding patient data from the Saarland Epidemiological Cancer Registry for the same period. The median survival time of the patients treated with mistletoe extracts was 59 months, significantly longer than that of the patients in the Saarland Epidemiological Cancer Registry (38 months; p < 0.0001, log-rank test). The 5 to 10 year survival rates for the patients treated with mistletoe extracts were 48.9 % and 42.7 % respectively, considerably higher than those for the reference groups (40.3 % and 27.2 % respectively). Analysis of the prognostic factors for survival time showed that tumour stage had the greatest influence on survival, followed by age, inclusion in the mistletoe treatment group and sex. Patients with tumour stages III or IV and under 68 years of age who were treated with mistletoe were shown to have a clear advantage in an exploratory analysis. The patients reported that they tolerated the mistletoe extracts well. The results of this retrospective study are further evidence of the increased survival time of patients with colorectal cancer with adjuvant mistletoe therapy.