PSK - Coriolus versicolor and Cancer

Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients August/September 1997


Who Owns Your Health?
by Steven Bailey, ND
This article is sponsored by JHS Products, a proprietary company

In an ideal world, the answer to “Who owns your health?” would be a simple “I do.” Yet, this is not an ideal world, particularly in the arenas of personal health and health care. So many factors remove us from ownership that even when we choose a responsible lifestyle and diet, continue our health education and invest in a quality healthcare policy, we are at best limited partners in this very important interest.

Many of the disempowering factors are well known to the readers of the Townsend Letter, which strives to help reveal the misinformation perpetuated by special interests and to provide knowledge to doctors and the public regarding safe options in our own health decisions. In the Townsend Letter, June 1997, both the editorial by Alan Gaby, MD “Drug Money Influences Medical Opinions” and the letter by Lee Hitchcox, DC on healthcare reform speak well about the problems inherent in our current healthcare system. While I agree with many of the points and reform suggestions in Dr. Hitchcox’s letter, their complete and immediate enaction would still not give us ownership of our health. In the very near future economic necessity will force the debate into addressing the structural flaws of our current system, and away from the cut - and - paste approach of today’s reformers.

Given our political and economic culture, the least defensible structural flaw in our healthcare system is the restriction on the flow of information regarding alternative therapies. It is also the one structural flaw whose correction could go the furthest in promoting the sort of systemic solutions that decrease the need for a piecemeal approach to reform.

It is hard to stand against the responsible use for good science. In theory, our free market is driven by informed and educated choice, i.e., good science. Enlightened demand can then promote the rise of effective health-care options as dollars flow toward the treatments that work, and away from those that do not. The American people have already spoken, with $14 billion being spent yearly on “alternative” health care. Yet the government still restricts the critical component needed for this market to function effectively, and that is good commercial information about alternatives that work.

As Dr. Gaby pointed out in his editorial in the Townsend Letter, June 1997, current statues and regulations severely restrict the free flow of information regarding inexpensive, effective, and scientifically proven treatments simply because they fall outside the pharmaceutical/allopathic paradigm. Contrast this with the marketing muscle of the pharmaceutical companies that dominate mass media outlets with the profits from proprietary drug sales.

Ideally, part of the the solution would be to redress patent laws that allow proprietary ownership of drugs, leading to over-pricing and unfair competition against safe, low cost, and often more effective natural, non-drug options. Changes in these laws would not end research and development, nor would they need to remove responsible profit margins for industry. They would, however, help to level the playing field and limit the early release and use of drugs that later prove harmful and must be removed form the market.

Realistically, securing the right to inform the public, through commercial speech, about good science on non-toxic therapies is an obtainable goal. Within the context of public debate, there is no credible reason - technical, legal, or economic - to stand against such a policy. Federal bureaucrats and legislators have tackled and solved more complicated regulatory tasks. And given that tens of thousands of people die every year as a result of taking FDA - approved drugs and therapies, the safety issues and risk factors involved with non-toxic therapies, by definition, would have to fall within our collective and regulatory comfort zone.

We need a way for science and information, rather than special-interest economics, to drive the American health care system before ownership of our own health is possible. Science and the free flow of information will create the most effective tool for change, the enlightened self-interest of an informed public. With fewer restrictions on the use of good science in public forums, many critical health issues, now ignored by the corporate media, might be examined at the national level.

In a national debate that gave priority to science, and not to special-interest economics:
---- We would discuss the causes of disease and prevention rather than how to manage the high costs of intervention and care.
---- We would challenge the food and agriculture industries, recognizing the harm and long-term costs of their chemical-based farming practices, the soil depletion it causes, and the resulting inadequate nutritional values of our food.
---- We would challenge the erroneous concept of processed food enrichment and dangers of toxic pesticides and fungicide consumption.
---- We would acknowledge the risks of trans-fatty acids in margarine and heat extracted oils.

Dr. Alan Gaby’s editorial on the marketing of drugs concludes with an encouragement that we increase our efforts to inform the public about “safe, effective, and inexpensive alternatives.” The natural products industry will never match the marketing power of the pharmaceutical industry, and it doesn’t need to. Truth will rise above the illusions of greed. What is needed, is to bring regulations and statutes into conformity with First Amendment Constitutional protections, and allow commercial speech that contains the good scientific information sitting in our public libraries. After all, who owns the science?

PSK - Coriolus versicolor: A Case In Point
In 1994, I was introduced to PSK, and all-natural, high-quality extract product from the mushroom Coriolus versicolor. A neighbor introduced me to a local mycologist who enthusiastically told me about this remarkable product being used in Japan for the treatment of cancer.

I listened with skepticism. I have been in private practice 14 years, and have taught pharmacognosy, botanical medicine and nutrition at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine. I found it hard to believe that a product that was so well researched, so broadly published, and offered so much potential benefit could be unknown to me, my professors, and my peers.

My doubts were unfounded. Indeed PSK was well researched, with more than 350 articles and studies published in medical journals; and yes, it offered great potential benefit to a wide array of immune-related concerns, especially cancer.

Skepticism is good when it leads to objective investigation. As I reviewed the impressive amount of published material on PSK, I became convinced of this product’s place in the medical system. Here is a product, commercially available since the 1970’s, with such consistent benefits that it might have significantly altered our approach to treating cancer if not for the fact that:
1) PSK could not be owned and marketed as a “drug” under US law, and
2) as a food supplement, treatment related information is banned from commercial speech.

PSK acts as an immuno-modulator and is used primarily in conjunction with chemotherapy, radiation, and surgical treatments for cancer. Clinical studies have demonstrated significant results, results that would make headlines if obtained through conventional treatments: 30% vs. 10% disease-free survival for colon cancer patients over and eight-year clinical trial when PSK was used alone and tested against a placebo; 22% vs. 5% survival at five years for stage III lung cancer patients who were given radiation plus PSK as opposed to radiation alone 1; 81% vs. 64% survival at ten years for breast cancer patients who were given chemotherapy plus PSK as opposed to chemotherapy alone 2; 73% vs. 60% survival at five years for gastric cancer patients who combined daily PSK use with their chemotherapy as opposed to chemotherapy alone. 3 This study, published in Lancet, found these results to be significant.4

However, safety and effectiveness are seemingly inconsequential when a product cannot be marketed as a “drug.” Based upon the statistical findings of more than 80 published human clinical studies, it is probable that tens of thousands of people may have died early and/or suffered unnecessarily from the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation in our current cancer treatment protocols because this effective medicine was not used nor available in the US.

In 1995, JHS Natural Products began marketing PSK as a food supplement in the US. The product is available to both doctors and the general public. Contact information for JHS is provided at the end of this article.

PSK is a high molecular weight polysaccharide first isolated form the mushroom Coriolus versicolor in the early 1970s. The mean molecular weight of PSK, as determined by ultracentrifugation, is 94kD. The main component of the carbohydrate moiety is glucose, with galactose, mannose, xylose and fucose as minor components. The protein moiety is rich in acidic amino acids and neutral amino acids, with basic amino acids in lower amounts. The main component unit of the polysaccharide moiety is a B-glucan, with the main chain consisting of B-(1-4) glucose polymer branched at positions 3 and 6 of the glucose. 5

This polysaccharide is found in a concentration of about 3% in most commercial Coriolus extracts but is isolated to a concentration of 33-66% in the product known as PSK. Also, PSK is the only commercial Coriolus product that contains nitrogen. These critical quality control factors are carefully monitored by JHS, and the PSK available through JHS Natural Products is assayed by the University of Georgia, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, (Supported in part by the Department of Energy-funded (DE-FG09-93ER-20097) Center for Plant and Microbial Complex Carbohydrates.)

PSK has complied with LD-50 and other safety evaluations in Japan and has been found to be extremely safe. In the US, PSK is marketed as a food supplement and LD-50 tests have not been required.

Pharmacologic properties in animals and humans have been extensively evaluated. PSK has a human metabolic half-life of 18 hours with the primary route of excretion being through the lungs. It requires very little dependence upon renal or hepatic elimination,6 and in fact has shown benefit in the treatment of hepatitis B and chronic hepatitis. JHS is currently working with the National College of Naturopathic Medicine to develop and fund an independent study of PSK’s influence on chronic hepatitis C.

The studies on PSK have demonstrated benefit through a variety of immune actions in human, animal, and in-vitro research. They have shown PSK activating macrophage and T killer-cell activity, stimulating lymphocyte counts, and balancing helper/suppressor ratios. Human studies, combining PSK with a variety of different protocols, have concluded that daily use of PSK results in significant increases in both survival rates and periods of remission for a number of cancers. Used extensively in Japan, where it accounts for approximately 25% of national (insurance) expenditures for the chemical treatment of cancer, the majority of studies investigate PSK with gastric and colorectal cancers.

The actions of PSK appear to benefit people with many forms of cancers as its influence is on maintaining a strong immune function during chemical and treatment-based insult as well as stimulating natural defenses and immune regulating functions. It should be noted that in people with severely impaired digestion, the absorption of large polysaccharides (like other nutrients in the diet) may be impaired.

Coriolus versicolor deserves a comprehensive review in Townsend Letter, and other journals. It is an example of one product that has proved itself extensively, yet remains outside the general practice in America due to the current restrictions on commercial speech, as well as the outdated drug laws and patent regulations.

In Japan, where PSK is dispensed as an authorized drug, it is sold for approximately $1,000 per month at a dosage of 3 grams per day. As a US food product, this same monthly supply is sold for $149 retail. This explains much of why natural products that can’t be owned on a proprietary basis don’t make their way into the American medical model: Effective and safe products that can’t generate the profits that our pharmaceutical industry has come to expect will not become the medicines of the future until the laws of today are changed.

We can try to fix our system, one piece at a time, or we can begin leveling the playing field by letting science, and not special interest economics, guide our future directions. Then we can truly begin to own our own health.


Coriolus versicolor standardized extract from JHS Natural Products has recently been trademarked in the United States as VPS and is manufactured to the same specifications as PSK. VPS is available at the discounted price of $134.95 per bottle or 2 bottles for $259.90 from WILDFIRE CONSULTING. Order toll free by calling 1-888-583-3532.

References
1. Torisu, M., et al. (1990). Significant prolongation of disease-free period gained by oral polysaccharide K (PSK) administration after curative surgical operation of colorectal cancer. Cancer Immunology Immunotherapy 31(5), 261-268.
2. Hayakawa, K., et al. (1993). Effect of Krestin (PSK) as Adjuvant Treatment on the Prognosis after Radical Radiotherapy in Patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. Anticancer Research 13, 1815-1820.
3. Ilino, Y., et al. (1995). Immunochemotherapies vs. Chemotherapy as Adjuvant Treatment after Curative Resection of Operable Breast Cancer. Anticancer Research 15, 2907-2912
4. Nakazato, H., et al. (1994). Efficacy of Immunochemotherapy as Adjuvant Treatment after Curative Resection of Gastric Cancer. Lancet 343, 1122-1126.
5. Sakagami, H. and Takeda M. (1993). Diverse Biological Activity of PSK (KRESTIN), A Protein-Bound Polysaccharide from Coriolus versicolor (Fr.) Quel. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Mushroom Biology and Mushroom products, August 23-26, 1993, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Mushroom Biology and Mushroom Products. Chang, S.-T. et al. (eds.). Shatin, Hong Kong: Chinese University Press: 237-245.
5. Ikusawa, M., et al. (1988). Fate and Distribution of an Antitumor Protein-Bound Polysaccharide PSK (KRESTIN). International Journal of Immunopharmacology 10(4), 415-423.


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