Hi
I’ve come back onto the forum after some time away (first diagnosed nov 2009), now have recurrence. I’m after some information about how people have found mistletoe therapy - if there is anybody out there who has tried it/is on it? Thanks
Maggy
Hi Maggy
Have only just seen your post re mistletoe therapy as I am an infrequent visitor to this site these days. I was diagnosed wth Grade 3 triple negative BC with spread to my lymph nodes 10 years ago next month. After finishing conventional therapy I was referred to the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital (now the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine) and have been having Iscador (mistletoe) therapy by subcutaneous injection ever since. I administer the injections myself without any problems but it also comes in an oral form. I have had no side effects from the medication and am currently well with no evidence of disease at present.
best wishes
Anne
Hi annieE really interested to know more about this therapy and if you can get it without referral to hospital. I asked GP for referral and didn’t get one. Any chance you can personal message me with some info? Thanks x
Thanks for that information Anne - good to hear you have been on it long term with no ill effects (and possibly v good effects!). Carrie I am accessing this via an anthroposophic private doctor in Worcestershire (I live in Herefordshire). Unfortunately I won’t beable to get the prescriptions on the NHS - long term therapy will cost about £50 per month plus occasional consulations etc.
Maggy
Hi Annie, this is the first I’ve heard of this and am very interested, any information you can post or pm would be very much appreciated.
Many thanks
Lydia x
I started Iscador (misltletoe) a month prior to my secondary diagnosis in 2011. I had about 6 months non stop and now 3 weeks every couple of months. I saw a guy in Bristol who actually prescribes it on the NHS if you are registered in his surgery. As I am in Oxford I had to pay. I am not so sure about him and have been trying to get in touch with the london homeopathic hospital but they don’t pick up the phone or answer emails. I am rather keen to resume but would like proper support.
AnnieE could you PM me a phone number and contact name please? . I have had no side effect except the redness where I injected myself.
I know it is commonly used in Germany and a homeopath I personnally know had great results from using it when she was diagnosed with primary.
Mistletoe or (Iscador) is known as a “questionable Cancer therapy” i believe the BMJ wrote an artical stateing that Mistletoe Has no proved benefit, and can also cause harm. Edward Ernsts ( professor of complimentary Therapies ) also wrote a paper on the subject. “Mistletoe has been tested extensively as a treatment for cancer, but the most reliable randomised controlled trials fail to show benefit, and some reports show considerable potential for harm. The costs of regular mistletoe injections are high. I therefore recommend mistletoe as a Christmas decoration and for kissing under but not as an anticancer drug. At the risk of upsetting many proponents of alternative medicine, I also contend that intuition is no substitute for evidence.”
Mistletoe is also one of the treatments listed as a “Questionable Cancer Therapy” on Quackwatch. Anyone considering Mistletoe as a cancer therapy should discuss this treatment first with their personal med teams before using. I would be extreamly surprised if any oncologist in the UK would recommend mistletoe for the treatment of cancer.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ijc.11386/pdf
http://mistletoe.org.uk/homewp/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/1282.pdf
LInda
Please Pm details of worcestershire contact I am interested.
I tried mistletoe with onc’s OK (or no objection if you want to try it more like) - but I think we’re lucky in aberdeen in the respect we have a world renowned expert who operates from a GP practice, and also a retired onc doctor at CLAN (like Maggies).
I tried it after a friend who had bowel cancer got considerable comfort from it in her last months - we knew it wasn’t going to save her but after her injections she was noticeably livelier. I coped OK with the initial dose but when the dose increased I had really bad skin reactions - I recall injecting 3 times a week at different positions in my tum, and ended up with 3 large red itchy lumps spread all across my midriff - I wasn’t prepared to put up with that so gave up.
I did get it on NHS prescription - the first one took ages for the pharmacist to obtain but after that it was no problem and my surgery were quiote happy to prescribe it - my GP’s brother is a bowel onc coincidently, and I recall it was he he OKed it initially but the scripts were actually written by the chief partner - no reason - he just responded when I rang for scripts, as the receptionists were out of their depth.
Biggest problem I had was getting practice nurses to show me how to administer - something aboiut needing precise instruction from the CLAN doctor - I think CYA cois they’d not done it before.
I can’t see it would be available on the NHS if there were doubts about safety myself.
Link to bbc article on my breast surgeon who’s undertaking research in Aberdeen (another reason it may be more readily available here)
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-19699770
Nina
Cornish girl interested on you view point but complimentary medicine has been around for centuries and now being used in conventional treatments and hospitals. Everyone has to do what they feel best for them, I could find you many reports about the conventional treatments of cancer that carry horrendous side effects and warnings but because they are established therapies we all follow them, we all need to be able to mAke our own informed decisions. So what if mistletoe and any other such remedy doesn’t work, the power of the mind and placebo effect well might!
Hi Carrie, i agree we all need to be able to make our own decisions re any cancer treatment, however i think it also important on a public cancer forum not to give out any misleading or in some cases harmfull info, the evidence as it stands does not support Mistletoe as having any benifit as a treatment for cancer patients. However, as you say it is up to each of us to decide what treatment routes we take, providing of course accurate and evidenced based info is also available for people to be able to make those important decisions for themselves.
Linda
Hello there
I’ve been taking iscador drops for about six months now – I was diagnosed in Feb with invasive lubular cancer in the right breast. I take eight drops in the morning, and 12 in the evening, Mon–Fri. have no idea if it works but have certainly had no adverse effects. I’m taking other supplements too – krill capsules, DIM, chlorella. Again, have no idea if they work or not but I’ll take them until I can no longer afford to. The iscador is prescribed on the NHS by my lovely homeopathic doctor at the Hospital of Integrated Medicine in London.
I’ve asked all my doctors about the diet I’m trying to follow and the supplements I’m taking, and none of them seems to have overly much time for anything too faddy. Of course they all recommend a healthy diet, but as for exclusions (I’ve more or less given up dairy and alcohol) and supplements – they say there’s nothing proven. One doctor I saw said that in his experience, cancer either behaves well or it doesn’t. that he has seen people with advanced cases come through, and vice versa. I guess that’s the thing – we known of us know. Just have to do whatever we can and hope that the pills do what they claim to.
Carrie / Lydia /Vercors
Would be happy to PM you further details but unfortunately, being a technophobe, have no idea how to and can’t find any info on the site to tell me how to go about it. Perhaps one of you could post with the idiots guide to PM’ing.
Linda
I am not advocating or encouraging the use of Iscador. As you will see from my post, I have replied to Carrie who was asking for info from anyone who has used mistletoe therapy. I completed all the conventional treatment - surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy - before commencing treatment with Iscador. I have been treated at a NHS hospital by a qualified doctor - I would not have been happy to undertake the therapy otherwise. When I completed my conventional therapy I was very keen to do whatever I could to prevent recurrence as I was Grade 3 triple negative with lymph node spread. I researched Iscador treatment thoroughly with the help of my GP. Although some reports showed benefits from the therapy others did not. None of the research I looked at showed any side effects more serious than a slightly raised temperature, so I decided to go ahead. I have no idea if I would be still be in remission 10 years after diagnosis without the Iscador and I never will know. I think that everybody has to make their own decisions about their treatment
best wishes
Anne
Hi all hope you don’t mind me adding to this thread I am currently taking mistletoe therepy I live near Hereford and get mine at Worcester by a GP my onc is fine about it ,I have to say I feel pretty well on it as I have secondary bone cancer .I was given info via a lovely lady who has been on it for several years , she to has secondaries and has been stable for last 6 years after havin 3 re occurrences in quick succession from original dx 15 years ago she really believes it has given her good quality of life and she is also aware it’s not a cure but hey I think when your in this situation it is vital to feel as well as you can and feel like you are doing all you can to keep your immune system working well, hope I have not offended any one but just wanted to post here regards Helen x
Annie,
Here are the instructions to send a message
on the left column of the forum, you will see a header called people and underneath it says messages.Click on Messages
on the right pane you will see 3 tabs, one called Messages (this is your inbox), the second called Write New Messages, this where you need to click.
type my name in the To box (vercors). be careful, unlike what it says underneath you cannot send an email to multiple recipients.
type your message and click on send.
I suggest that if you want to send the same message to multiple recipient, you use the cut and paste facility. (happy to help if you don’t know how to do it but I will know if you use a PC, laptop or tablet, ipad etc). Good luck. Looking forward to your message.
Alternative therapy is always a hot subject on this forum, I refuse to enter into the debate as it always gets heated. I will still look into it, especially Iscador as it a treatment that is also meant to be used with traditional methods.
Hi Helen was just interested, the lady who has been stable for the last 6 years did she have roccurrence in the breast or does she have spread elsewhere in the body, I only ask because I think that breast reocurrence is not classed as secondary cancer. I am so pleased that you are doing so well. I have read on the Macmillan site that the therapy does seem to improve the quality of life for cancer patients and can help with the side effects from Chemo and Rads. I do think it’s important to say though that it is not a cure as some would suggest (not anyone on here but in google land lol) . Here’s what Macmillan have to say.
Mistletoe (Iscador®, Eurixor®)
Mistletoe can be taken by mouth or as injections. It may be administered by homeopaths and is sometimes described as a herbal treatment or as a homeopathic remedy. But, strictly speaking, it’s an anthroposophical treatment. Anthroposophical medicine aims to integrate conventional medicine with complementary treatments, including homeopathy, physical and artistic therapies.
It’s claimed that mistletoe may have various effects, including stimulating the immune system, improving the quality of life of people with cancer and reducing side effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
However, at the moment there’s no reliable scientific evidence that mistletoe is effective in treating cancer. In general, however, treatment with mistletoe appears to be safe and any side effects are usually mild.
If mistletoe is taken in large doses it may cause more serious side effects.
When given as an injection, mistletoe may cause mild swelling, redness, itching and pain around the injection site. It can occasionally cause allergic reactions, which may be serious in some people.
Because mistletoe extracts may stimulate the immune system, they could reduce the effectiveness of some medicines, such as steroids and cyclosporine, used after bone marrow or stem cell transplants.
Mistletoe extracts can also increase the effects of blood pressure medicines and some anaesthetics used during surgery.
It’s important to check with your cancer specialist before using mistletoe extracts.
Mistletoe therapy may sometimes be available through the NHS.
Best wishes Mel xx
Hi all,
Here’s the link to BCC’s Complementary therapies publication where Misteltoe therapy is discussed on P17.
www2.breastcancercare.org.uk/publications/health-wellbeing/complementary-therapies-bcc55
Best wishes,
Jo, Facilitator
Thank you for all the input on this thread. Having been tested for allergy to mistletoe now, I will be starting on the larger dose injections next week - I 'm happy to report back if anyone is interested…
cheers
maggy
Dear caro_dali,
I have attached a link to our publication about Complementary Therapies:
www2.breastcancercare.org.uk/sites/default/files/comp_therapies_bcc55_web.pdf
For information I have copied an extract from the booklet
If you are having conventional medical treatment for breast
cancer, let your specialist team know about any complementary
therapies you are thinking about trying, including food
supplements. If you see a complementary therapist, you should
tell them about your breast cancer and its treatment.
Very best wishes
Janet
BCC Moderator