In the News

Trial Starts of Shark Cartilage for Cancer

December 9, 1998
Release from:
Reuters, Washington
WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) and a Canadian biotechnology company said on Wednesday they were starting advanced trials of a new cancer drug made from shark cartilage. It is the first shark compound to be tested by the NCI, which has resisted pressure from alternative medicine advocates who believe sharks have unique abilities to fight cancer in their bodies.
The product, known as Neovastat, is made by Montreal-based AEterna Laboratories Inc., and is an angiogenesis inhibitor-- one of a highly vaunted new class of drugs that kill a tumour by starving it of its blood supply. The Phase III clinical trials-- the last stage before application for U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval -- will involve 550 patients with advanced small-cell lung cancer at hospitals across the United States and Canada.
Neovastat is a liquid cartilage extract. Other studies have shown that cartilage from cattle can affect a tumour's ability to form new blood vessels to feed itself. Dr. James Pluda of the National Cancer Institute said this is not surprising, because cartilage-- the stuff that protects joints and bones-- has no blood vessels. But he said it is not clear how the extract works.
"There probably is something there," he said in a telephone interview. "What it is I don't know. It's not a specific drug or a specific molecule ... It happens to come from shark cartilage." But sharks may be an easy source of the cartilage as they have no bones and use cartilage for their skeletons. "Cow cartilage, you've got to pick it off the bones and stuff," Pluda said.
Several companies are working on cancer drugs based on shark products-- which rose to attention with a book claiming that sharks do not get cancer and thus might offer insight into cancer drugs. Researchers say sharks in fact do get cancer, but the NCI has pledged to test such alternative therapies to see whether they might help.
"We are working in collaboration with the National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Shark cartilage is something they are interested in," Pluda said. He said the NCI was strict in choosing a product to test. "Of all the products that we looked at that were shark- derived, this one scored the highest in the review process. We are still talking with other companies, but this one met our rigorous criteria and we are moving forward with it the same way we would move forward with any other compound," he said.
Patients in the trial will get standard treatment for small-cell lung cancer, which is chemotherapy and, sometimes, radiation. Half will also get the shark extract while the other half will get a placebo (dummy) treatment. "Then we're going to look for a difference in survival," Pluda said. Another shark compound that may work in the same way is squalamine, currently in much earlier Phase I clinical trials. Made by Magainin Pharmaceuticals Inc., it is being tested against brain tumours.
Other angiogenesis inhibitors being tested by the NCI include thalidomide, now approved for use against leprosy despite its ability to cause severe birth defects. Eleven angiogenesis inhibitors are currently under development and three, made by Bayer, British Biotech and Agouron Pharmaceuticals, are in Phase III trials.