Mistletoe (Viscum album L.) has been used as complementary anticancer treatment for ~100 years. Although the clinical efficacy of mistletoe in cancer and associated survival benefits remain contested, several studies point to its effectiveness and others have reported antitumor and immunomodulatory properties. In the present review, a search was conducted for original articles reporting the out...

BACKGROUND Given the importance of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to cancer patients, there is an increasing need to learn more about possible interactions between CAM and anticancer drugs. Mistletoe (Viscum album L.) belongs to the medicinal herbs that are used as supportive care during chemotherapy. In the in vitro study presented here the effect of standardized mistletoe prepar...

Background. Breast cancer patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy often experience a loss of quality of life. Moreover chemotherapy may induce neutropenia. Patients report a better quality of life when additionally treated with mistletoe products during chemotherapy. Methods. In this prospective randomized open-label pilot study 95 patients were randomized into three groups. All patients were ...

In a retrospective study we analysed the survival times of all breast cancer patients treated with mistletoe extract in the Oncology Outpatient Department of the Herdecke Communal Hospital during the period from 1981 to 2000. The survival data for our patients were compared with those for other similar patient populations (tumour registries). The comparatively favourable results from the presen...

This study investigates the inhibitory effects of Korean mistletoe extract (KME) on adipogenic factors in 3T3-L1 cells and obesity and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in mice fed a high-fat diet. Male C57Bl/6 mice fed a high-fat diet were treated with KME (3 g/kg/day) for 15 weeks for the antiobesity and NAFLD experiments. Body weight and daily food intake were measured regularly durin...

BACKGROUND Studies reveal that patients with cancer are actively seeking supportive treatments and may use distinct coping strategies that might be helpful to extend survival time. In this respect, retrolective studies have been applied to examine the therapeutic potential of adjuvant mistletoe treatment. MATERIAL AND METHODS The databases PubMed, EMBASE, AMED, and CAMbase were used to identi...

Additional therapy with extracts of Viscum album [L.] (VaL) increases the quality of life of patients suffering from early stage breast cancer during chemotherapy. In the current study patients received chemotherapy, consisting of six cycles of cyclophosphamide, anthracycline, and 5-Fluoro-Uracil (CAF). Two groups also received one of two VaL extracts differing in their preparation as subcutane...

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 m...