



Mistletoe may kill off cancer cells


Danny Rose

Mistletoe is renowned for inspiring Christmas-time kisses, and Australian scientists are now probing its power to kill off cancer cells.

Work is underway at the University of Canberra to improve understanding of the parasitic plant, which is used extensively in cancer treatment programs in Germany.

Senior research fellow at the university's Cancer Immunotherapy Group, Dr Ljubov Simson, said Australian laboratory tests had confirmed mistletoe's ability to stimulate the body's immune system while killing off cancer cells.

Most importantly, Dr Simson says, it does so without harming healthy cells nearby.

"In the laboratory, we're finding that it is killing the tumour cells but we're actually not getting any killing in terms of the healthy cells," she said.

"So now we're interested in dissecting out how it is being so selective. We really don't have an answer for that at this stage... several of the components are yet to be fully characterised."

Lab tests conducted outside of a human body had shown a mistletoe extract could kill 80 per cent of a cancer tumour.

The extract was known to activate a sub-class of white blood cells, the eosinophil, which Dr Simson said had already been shown to be effective in the treatment of cancer.

Mistletoe also acted as a "coagulant" when introduced to the cancer cells, she said.

"It increases adhesion and it helps the mistletoe product to basically start to break apart the tumour cells," Dr Simson said.

"There is also a toxin in the mistletoe - so you'd have to be careful with the dosage that you'd give to patients - the toxin is also directly effective at killing tumour cells."

Dr Simson hopes her work will lead to the plant being approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration for use in cancer treatments in Australia.

While it was not a cure, Dr Simson said it could provide cancer patients with more treatment options and improve quality of life during treatment with mainstream chemotherapies.

Chemotherapy works by targeting rapidly growing cells within the body - such as a mutating cancer cells but also healthy cells as they metabolise.

"Hence why you get so many bad side effects," Dr Simson said.

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