Recently, the Anticancer Research Journal published an article detailing a case report of a renal cell carcinoma successfully treated with mistletoe extracts (viscum album).

Below is the abstract of the article.

“Background: Bilateral asynchronous renal cell
carcinoma (RCC) is infrequent. Immunotherapy is the first-line
treatment for advanced RCC not controlled by locoregional
therapy. Viscum album extracts (VAE) have been shown to
improve quality of life as well as immunological and
antineoplastic properties in different types of cancers. Case
Report: A 67-year-old man was diagnosed with Fuhrman
grade 3/4 RCC, stage pT1bN0M0 in the right kidney. During
the subsequent 6 years, he underwent a right nephrectomy and
two metastasectomies (lung). Then a renal cell carcinoma lesion of the left
kidney was detected. The patient refused a second nephrectomy
and was treated solely with high-dose intravenous and
subsequent subcutaneous VAE. A central necrotic area and a
peritumoral halo were seen on an ultrasound follow-up from
month 7. The patient showed no further progression of RCC
during the next 2.5 years. Conclusion: As far as we are aware
of, this is the first report of a patient with metastatic RCC with
an RCC lesion of the second kidney treated solely with highdose
intravenous and subcutaneous VAE, associated with 2.5
years of progression-free survival and a good quality of life.
The use of VAE in RCC should be carefully documented and
published to determine future research.

I have placed the full article in the Cancer section.

Ross Rentea MD