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One of the most successful treatments for cancer is chemotherapy, which uses medications and drugs to slow the growth and multiplication of cancer cells.

Unfortunately, chemotherapy treatment also affects healthy cells in the body, which leads to common side-effects such as hair loss, mouth sores, swallowing difficulty, nausea, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, infection, anemia and increased risk of bleeding.

Additionally, many cancer patients begin to develop resistance to chemotherapy, and higher doses are necessary for effective treatment. This is explained by the fast replication rate of cancer cells; in fact, replication mutations occur, including mutations into cells resistant to chemotherapy. As these resistant cells multiply, they form drug-resistant cancer cells known as mediated multidrug resistance (MDR).

A recent groundbreaking study conducted by Dr. Mamdooh Ghoneum at Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles, Calif. and presented at the Global Holistic Health Summit last January in Bangalore, India, indicates that a formula of rice bran hydrolyzed with shiitake mushroom extracts called MGN3 may help susceptibility of MDR cancer cells to chemotherapeutic agents.

In vitro testing showed that MDR tumour cells exposed only to the chemotherapy drug adriamycin had a substantial killing effect at doses of 25 milligrams. When MGN3 was added to the treatment, only seven to eight milligrams of adriamycin were necessary to achieve the same results. This means that taking MGN3 in conjunction with a chemotherapy treatment may result in using a smaller quantity of the chemotherapy drug to induce the same level of cancer cell death. A smaller dose of the drug will have many benefits to the patient including less toxicity and fewer physical side-effects.

MGN3 is a top natural immune-boosting supplement. It has been shown in other clinical trials to significantly enhance virtually every critical component of the immune system by tripling the activity of natural killer (NK) cells, which are the immune system’s first line of defence against health threats. MGN3 has also been clinically proven to boost B and T cell activity by 200 to 250 per cent, as well as heighten cytokine production.

Many clinical trials have demonstrated that MGN3 supplementation leads to significant improvement in immune function in cancer patients, and one trial demonstrated improved survival rates in end-stage cancer patients. Research has been presented at renowned medical conferences and published in respected peer-reviewed journals.

Unlike many natural and pharmaceutical biological response modifiers, MGN3 does not cause “hyporesponsiveness,” a brief period of effective immune enhancement followed by a significant drop in immune function despite the continuation of treatment. The long-term efficacy of MGN3 has been clinically proven for five years. Further clinical trials are in process to explore the medical uses of this exceptional natural product.

Source: alive #246, April 2003