Mistle toe extracts in the therapy of malignant, hematological and lymphatic diseases - a unicentric, retrospective analysis over 16 years

Objective: The aim of the present investigation was to investigate potentia ls risks of treatment with mistletoe extracts in patients with malignant ha ematological and lymphatic diseases consulting the Tumour Ambulance of the Community Hospital Herdecke and to evaluate the therapeutic experiences wit h this treatment. Patients and Methods: All 700 patients with these disease s who had been counselled at the Tumour Ambulance of Community Hospital Her decke since the foundation of the unit were included in a retrospective que stionnaire study to collect information on the course of the disease and th e survival time. Therapy with mistletoe extracts had been recommended to al l patients. The treatment was carried out by the patient's physician outsid e the hospital. For inclusion into further analysis, information on surviva l time and mistletoe treatment had to be available. Survival times of patie nts who had actually received the recommended mistletoe treatment and of pa tients who had not received the recommended mistletoe treatment were compar ed (internal comparison). Furthermore, the results were compared to those o f conventionally treated patients obtained from the literature (literature comparison). Results: Of 237 patients for whom sufficient data was availabl e, 14 had not been treated with a mistletoe extract. The median survival ti me was 9.18 years among patients who had received mistletoe compared to 7.5 4 years among those without. Before a statistical test was carried out, the equivalent distribution of diagnosis in the 2 groups was tested. Regarding this criterion, only 205 patients treated with mistletoe extract and 9 pat ients not treated with mistletoe extract could be included into the statist ical tests of the median survival time. The median survival time was 11.4 y ears (mistletoe patients) and 8.6 years (patients whithout mistletoe therap y). The difference was not significant. There were no cases in which mistle toe treatment was associated with deterioration. The comparison with data f rom the literature yielded very similar survival times among patients not t reated with mistletoe extract and those included in our study. Conclusion: No indications to risks of a mistletoe therapy on progress of the disease a nd the survival time could be found. Therefore, no ethical reservations sho uld be opposed to future prospective investigations of mistletoe therapy in patients with malignant haematological diseases.