Laetrile Effectiveness

Laetrile is a special compound derived from plants, raw nuts and the pits of fruits like apricots, bitter almonds, peaches and plums. Laetrile contains amygdalin, which is a compound consisting of cyanide and sugar. Laetrile has been used by some cancer victims in an effort to fend off the disease because the cyanide in laetrile is believed to offer cancer destroying benefits. Laetrile also contains prunasin and benzaldehyde, both of which are believed to be blockers of cancer cells.

The Use of Laetrile

The use of Laetrile is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. When Laetrile was tested on cancer patients, the supplement was provided through orally consumed pills or injection. Usually, the supplement is offered intravenously for a period of time, and the patient then follows up with oral doses for maintenance therapy. While this supplement has been made available on the Internet, the U.S. government is taking steps to cease all Internet sales of the substance.

Overall Effectiveness

Laetrile has illustrated a few anticancer benefits when it has been tested on animals and humans. A case series involving 44 cancer patients that used Laetrile in the early 1950s, indicated that those patients that experienced improvements in their condition received anticancer drugs, radiation therapy and Laetrile supplements. Thus, the supplement use was combined with other treatment forms, and the case series does not reveal the true effectiveness of Laetrile, if any.
A second case series conducted in the early 1960s involved 10 patients with cancer that had spread to various parts of the body. They were given Laetrile via intravenous injection. The primary benefit reported by the patients was pain relief, a reduction of lymph node swelling and a decrease in the size of tumors. Long-term studies were not conducted on the 10 patients.
When Laetrile breaks down inside your body, benzaldehyde is created. Some patients diagnosed with advanced cancer have responded well to the use of benzaldehyde, even after not having positive results with standard cancer treatments. Some patients actually saw all the symptoms and signs of cancer disappear while others were noted to have a decrease in the size of cancerous tumors.

Negative Laetrile Studies

Director Vincent DeVita Jr., the director of the National Cancer Institute, performed human testing on Laetrile on 156 patients at the Minnesota Mayo Clinic, the New York City Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center. All patients tested had some form of advanced cancer no longer treatable via standard cancer treatment methods. Patients received Laetrile via intravenous injection for three weeks, and three times a day by oral consumption.
The results of the study showed that Laetrile had little to no positive effect. Disease progression was identified in 50 percent of the patients within 30 days time, and 90 percent of the patients within a period of 90 days. One-fifth of all patients tested survived eight months.

Potential Side Effects

The side effects of Laetrile are significant. The side effects you will experience when using Laetrile are those that are commonly associated with cyanide poisoning. Side effects can include nausea, vomiting, dizziness, headache, skin discoloration attributed to oxygen deprivation, damage to the liver, hypotension, droopy eyelids, coordination difficulty, nerve damage, fever, confusion, coma and death. Due to the serious side effects associated with this supplement's use, and the lack of long-term studies conducted on the use of Laetrile, this supplement cannot be recommended until further studies are conducted.