Saturday Quack – Shark Cartilage

In 1992 Dr William Lane wrote a book titled “Sharks Don't Get Cancer” and set off a still-growing trend for cancer patients to take various shark cartilage products, such as Carticin, Cartilade, BeneFin, or Neovastat. It became so popular that the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) felt impelled to sponsor a well-controlled clinical study to determine if shark cartilage had a beneficial effect in cancer. The results of this study were reported at the recent American Society of Clinical Oncology.

The chosen shark cartilage product, Neovastat, was added to the treatment (chemoradiation) being given to patients with non-small-cell lung cancer. Half the 384 patients, who were in different centers in the USA and Canada, were given 120 mL orally of Neovastat twice daily, along with chemotherapy and radiation; the other half received no Neovastat, but a placebo. After an average follow-up of 3.7 years there was no significant difference in the overall survival between the two groups – 15.6 months for placebo vs. 14.4 months for shark cartilage. There were no data that showed tumor shrinkage or any clinical benefits to the patients taking the shark cartilage.

Skeptics might have said at the outset that, if sharks don’t get cancer, they’re hardly a good model for humans with cancer. At any rate, I hope cancer sufferers will save their money and stop enriching the manufacturers of these dubious products. Better spend it on having a little pleasure after their course of chemo has finished, in my opinion.