The Role of Lingzhi / Ganoderma in Cancer Treatment

Thursday 15 September 2011

Cancer is a much dreaded word. Unhappily, it's becoming a more common occurrence. Almost all of us know of someone who has succumbed to this much-feared disease.

Cancers are caused by mutation of cells. Rapid and mass proliferation of mutated cells deprives normal tissues and organs of their functions and eventually causes death. Traces of malignant tumors can be found in all human organs except the hair.

The human body is unable to detect any symptoms when a few hundred cells are cancerous. Only when cancer cells proliferate to form a complete tumor is awareness of symptoms triggered. Thus, it is difficult to detect cancer prior to tumor formation, even with the aid of precision instruments. But do you know that when cancer cells spread, it is almost impossible to predict where cancer will occur next? Thus prevention is definitely a more important strategy than treatment in slowing cancer growth.

Classification of Stages of Cancer by the American Joint Committee on Cancer:

1) Early Stage: tumor tissues still remain in one area with no signs of metastasis (spread of disease from 1 organ to another)
2) Intermediate Stage: cancer cells have proliferated to lymph nodes but not yet invaded other organs
3) Advanced Stage: cancer cells proliferated to lymph nodes and other organs
4) Terminal Stage: cancer cells metastasized to distant organs

Conventional treatments for cancer such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy bring patients painful side-effects, but with no guarantee of recovery. Some hospitals adopt an integrated traditional Chinese and Western therapeutic method, which increases the patients' chances of recovery and reduces the harm caused by side-effects.

Much research on cancer therapy states effective treatment should be given prior to tumor formation, as this is the best time for treating cancers. Once cancer cells spread out and enter the lymph system, it is impossible to predict accurately where cancers will occur next. As such, we strongly emphasize that prevention is a better strategy than treatment in slowing cancer growth.

How Ganoderma / Lingzhi Works

Animal Tests


In 1985, Prof Da-Cheng Dong fed mice with tumor, with ganoderma fruiting body extracts for 30 days. High doses of the extracts were found to be effective in inhibiting tumor growth, but ineffective at low dosage.

In 2004, Prof Zhi-Bin Lin found that ganoderma polysaccharide peptides are able to fight cancer in mice because they indirectly prevent tumor cells from growing new blood vessels, thereby causing cancer cell apoptosis due to starvation.

In 2002, Kimura fed mice implanted with malignant lung cancer cells with high dosage ganoderma triterpenoids for 18 days. It was found that cancer cell metastasis in the spleen and liver of mice in the treated group was significantly less than in the control group. It inhibit cancer by directly arresting the growth of new blood vessels in the cancer cells.

In 2006, Jian-Jiang Zhong from East China University of Science and Technology found ganoderic acid T to be effective in inhibiting tumor growth of mice implanted with lung cancer cells. The higher the dosage, the more effective the cancer cell inhibition.

Successful in-vitro experiments were conducted using triterpenoids on the following types of cancer cells: leukemia cells, hepatoma (liver) cells, nasopharyngeal (throat) carcinoma, lung cancer, prostate cancer.

Ganoderma / Lingzhi and Human Clinical Study


In 1995, Thaithatgom from Thailand used ganoderma fruiting body extracts as auxiliary treatment for 80 cancer patients. Findings:-
  • It's effective in extending the lifespan of up to 50% of patients
  • Side effects from chemo and radiotherapy were decreased
  • Patients showed pain-relief, good appetite and better quality of life
In 2003, Gao and co-workers from New Zealand gave purified G.lucidum polysaccharide orally to 47 patients with terminal colorectal cancer. Findings:-
  • 41 patients remained alive after 3 months
  • Natural killer cell activity of 68.3% patients significantly increased
  • Chemo and radiotherapy side-effects eg. extreme fatigue, weight loss, vomiting, cold sweat and diarrhea were reduced, improving their quality of life
The same G.lucidum polysaccharides used in the experiment were also tested on 34 other terminal cancer patients (including lung, breast, hepatoma, prostate, bladder and brain cancer). 30 patients remained alive, showing the same positive results as above.

According to a professional periodical "Healthy Ganoderma" published in Taiwan, a scientific survey was conducted in 2007 on patients who had been using ganoderma extract as anti-cancer auxiliary treatment for the past 20 years. 70% of over 700 cancer patients interviewed thought that ganoderma extracts could reduce side-effects of chemo and radiotherapy and enhance immunity.

Summary


Numerous scientific researches have observed that regardless of the stages of treatment, the most important approach of ganoderma / lingzhi is to:
(1) inhibit cancer cell proliferation/metastasis
(2) induce apoptosis (cancer cells kill itself) and
(3) kill cancer cells directly.

Further, lingzhi is found to be effective as auxiliary treatment for cancer patients by:
(1) extending their lifespan
(2) decreasing the side effects from chemo and radiotherapy and
(3) giving them better quality of life.

This is because lingzhi enhances the patients’ overall immune system and their body’s anti-cancer ability and raises their tolerance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

(Source: Ganoderma The Ultimate Herbal Medicine, Chapter 7, by Dr. Deng-Hai Chen)

What Ganoderma / Lingzhi To Choose?
Yung Kien Ganoderma is the high quality lingzhi that is able to effectively perform all of the above safely and effectively. Please email me at askfuiping@gmail.com if you're serious about preventing (not merely treating) cancer.
Click here to refer to Shuang Hor company website for Product Description and Price.