Condor, no, I don't personally know anyone who uses it. Although I read that in China it has been used since 1997, in >2,000 hospitals, and on >400,000 cases. The effective rate is >90%, especially for lung and stomach cancer. It can significantly extend patients live (7.4 months longer without any side effect and international average is less than 5 months)
If you google it, you can find plenty of news about it, as well as some personal experience.
And since July 2004, Russia has approve to use it in their hospitals.
ForbesChina Sept. issue has an article for the detail of the phase I trail in Utah Huntsman Cancer Institute. At the beginning, they could not even find a patient who was willing to take part in the Phase I trail. Finally, Dr. Li (the inventor) had to agree to take the risk and asked a 74 year old man who had Stage IV pancreas cancer, who was predicted with only 2 months to live. Li was really desperate<g>, no one wants to test a drug on cancer on this kind of patients. During the first 40 days, the patient was used for 100 ml/day, and 40 days later, increased to 500 ml (Phase I usually test the severity of the possible side effect). But there was still no any side effect shown. And the patient was able to walk. And 14 months later this guy was still alive. So after >2 years of trail, in Aug. 2003, FDA finally approved the trail on Human beings. Although the phase II and III will take anywhere bet. 5-10 years before the final FDA approval. So do expect one can use it in North America anytime soon.
Here is the link of that article (in Chinese, not sure English version Forbes has this article or not)
forbeschina.com
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DISCLIAMER: this post does not intend for any medical advise<g>. |
