At Whole Health, we have always maintained that the only thing shark cartilage is good for is sharks. But, even that is doubtful since people kill sharks to get their cartilage! Now, a new study mandated by Congress and sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, conducted at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, has found that shark cartilage extract is not beneficial, to lung cancer patients.1.
The researchers tested a shark cartilage extract know as AE-941 or Neovastat developed by Canadian pharmaceutical company Aeterna Zentaris as a drug. The study took place from June of 2000 through February 2006 at 53 different sites in the US and involved 384 newly-diagnosed, untreated Stage III, non-small-cell lung cancer patients. Non-small-cell lung cancer accounts for 80% of all types of lung cancer. All patients received standard induction chemotherapy and chemo-radiation treatments and were randomly assigned either the shark cartilage extract as a 4 oz. liquid taken twice daily, or placebo during and after standard treatment. The researchers could not find a statistically significant difference in survival time between those who took the shark cartilage extract (14.4 months) and those who received the placebo (15.6 months).
The use of shark cartilage as a cancer treatment stems from the popular misconception that sharks do not get cancer. Sharks do, in fact, get cancer. People also take shark cartilage for arthritis and joint pain, arguing that sharks do not get arthritis. This is just plain silliness, since sharks are a cartilaginous fish which don't have the bone/joint structure that humans have. On this topic, we like to paraphrase one researcher, that eating a rabbit won't make you run any faster, either.
Whole Health has never sold shark cartilage because not only do we believe good science has demonstrated that it is ineffective at improving human health, but also because sharks have a low birth rate and are chronically overfished. Consequently, many species' long-term survivability is now in question, and because sharks are a top predator, this threatens entire ecosystems. Learn more about the products we don't sell and why we don't sell them.
1. Lu, C. (2007). Shark Cartilage Shows No Benefit as a Therapeutic Agent for Lung Cancer. Press Releases, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Back
