178 patients, no benefit on any endpoint, and blood cyanide approaching the lethal range. Cochrane calls the risk-benefit balance unambiguously negative.
Filed under CompoundConstellation Cancer, found and missedStatus Upcoming
Not yet investigated
What we have so far
178 patients, no benefit on any endpoint, and blood cyanide approaching the lethal range. Cochrane calls the risk-benefit balance unambiguously negative.
This star is on the map because the show intends to take the question apart properly — the trials, how it is actually tested, whether the thing sold is the thing studied. That work is not done yet, and nothing here should be read as a conclusion. When the investigation is published it will appear on this page.
What we are reading
Gathered for the investigation and not yet written up. Each note says what the paper does and does not show.
Moertel CG, Fleming TR, Rubin J, Kvols LK, Sarna G, Koch R, Currie VE, Young CW, Jones SE, Davignon JP. A clinical trial of amygdalin (Laetrile) in the treatment of human cancer.N Engl J Med · 1982 · 306(4):201–20610.1056/NEJM198201283060403 · PMID 7033783
The trial the advocates demanded and then rejected. 178 patients, most in good general condition, a third chemotherapy-naive, given amygdalin at doses and schedules representative of actual Laetrile practice plus the full 'metabolic therapy' diet-and-enzyme programme. No benefit in cure, improvement, stabilisation, symptoms or survival. Several patients showed cyanide toxicity or blood cyanide approaching lethal. The conclusion is one sentence: a toxic drug that is not effective as a cancer treatment.
Eight databases, two registers, over 200 references screened across three updates — and not one study met the inclusion criteria. Zero randomised trials. The review's own verdict: the risk-benefit balance is 'unambiguously negative'. Worth noting how rare that phrasing is in a Cochrane conclusion.
