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09.02.2024

Chaga inhibits lung cancer

Supplementation with an extract of the mushroom chaga (Latin name: Inonotus obliquus) may improve the prospects of lung cancer patients. This is suggested by a Japanese animal study that was published in Helyion in 2016.

Chaga & cancer
Traditional healers worldwide use chaga extracts against cancer. With some reason, according to fundamental research. Animal studies have shown that chaga administration can indeed inhibit various forms of cancer. [Mol Cells. 2011 Feb;31(2):165-73.] [Life Sci. 2006 May 30;79(1):72-80.]

Part of the mechanism of action of chaga is that substances in the mushroom stimulate the immune system. On the one hand, Chaga inhibits allergic reactions by the immune system, [J Ethnopharmacol. 2011 Oct 11;137(3):1077-82.] [Int Immunopharmacol. 2013 Apr;15(4):666-70.] [Int Immunopharmacol. 2020 Apr:81:106244.] on the other hand, chaga activates the immune system to clear out of control cells and pathogens. [Fish Shellfish Immunol. 2012 Jun;32(6):1148-54.] [Mol Cell Probes. 2018 Oct:41:43-51.]

At the same time, chaga contains substances that directly kill cancer cells. According to South Korean research, the sterols shown below are the most powerful. [J Ethnopharmacol. 2018 Oct 5:224:63-75.]

Study
Molecular biologists from Showa University in Japan gave mice an extract of chaga in their drinking water every day for 3 weeks in a row. The researchers then injected lung cancer cells into the flanks of their test animals.

The Japanese subjected mice that had not been given chaga extract to the same procedure.

Results
In the mice in the chaga group, the tumors became less large and heavy than in the mice in the control group, as shown in the figure below.

The cancer cells metastasized to the lungs. On scans, the Japanese saw fewer metastases in the lungs of the mice that had received chaga than in the lungs of the control group.

Dosage
If we understand the publication correctly, the mice - if they had been adult humans - were given approximately 60 milligrams of extract daily. According to the researchers, that dosage is "similar to that received by Japanese people through daily Chaga tea drinking."

We're not exactly sure how to compare this extract, which the Japanese made themselves, with the chaga extracts in supplements, but we suspect that supplement users can consume sufficient amounts of the bioactive substances in Chaga.

Conclusion
"Our findings suggest that the aqueous extract of Inonotus obliquus could be used as a natural product for cancer suppression and general health care", the Japanese summarize.

Source:
Heliyon. 2016 May 12;2(5):e00111.

More:
AHCC increases the survival chances of cancer patients 01.04.2020
Couple of grams Phellinus linteus daily makes Natural Killer Cells 15 percent more deadly 10.12.2017
How hispolon helps the immune system to kill cancer cells 16.12.2017

Archives:
Cancer Prevention & Survival
Mushrooms

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