Bovine Tracheal Cartilage (BTC) has been used successfully in a wide variety of cancers, but as it has been tested on relatively few patients with any one cancer, there is no good data on what percentage of patients with any particular kind of cancer have achieved remission. Dunn stated that, "It is therefore not rational to substitute bovine cartilage for treatment of proven value, where such treatment exists. BTC can be used with conventional treatment, and some of the data suggests that it may be synergistic with certain chemotherapies and hormonal treatments, although this is far from firmly established."

BTC was developed by Harvard trained physician John F. Prudden who has been using it to treat human cancer since the early 1970's. Clinical research, while not substantial, is promising. BTC is virtually non-toxic (with only rare instances of mild GI tract effects recorded).

The therapy consists of taking three grams of BTC three times per day in the form of capsules. (As compared to Shark's Cartilage where the dose is a gram per kilogram weight. With shark's cartilage if you weigh 60 kilos you must take 60 grams a day - which is both very expensive and may be difficult to stomach.) With BTC the cost is about $160.00/month. Response may take several months to develop, and if there is a response, treatment should be continued indefinitely. Therefore patients should be prepared to take it over the long term.

In Steve Dunn's opinion, BTC makes particular sense for patients with pancreatic cancer, since the prognosis of this cancer has been so poor with conventional therapy, and since there have been a few spectacular successes with BTC. He also thinks it makes sense for kidney cancer because of the independent documented evidence, combined with some of Dr. Prudden's cases, and, again, he also feels it may be particularly useful in prostate cancer. There are strong hints of synergy with hormone therapy. (However he stresses that it is critically important not to abandon any possibly effective conventional therapy for bovine cartilage, since by conventional standards, the data is still quite thin. Even in the case of pancreatic cancer, surgery can be effective in a few cases, and there are hints that BTC may be synergistic with 5-FU, a chemotherapy drug often used in treating pancreatic cancer.) There have been successes in quite a few other types of cancer as well, and in fact BTC's apparent broad spectrum of activity is one of its major attractions.

Note, however, that Steve Dunn believes there is little relevance for BTC with the leukemias. Dr. Prudden, who developed this therapy, believed the main mechanism of action is immune modulation by polysaccharide components of BTC, although there may also be a direct cytostatic effect as well. The proponents of shark cartilage claim it works because of anti-angiogenic effects, and indeed cartilage does contain anti-angiogenic factors, however much criticism has been levelled at shark cartilage because the known anti-angiogenic factors are proteins which are digested, not absorbed. But it could well be that the active ingredients in shark cartilage are also really polysaccharides, and that the primary mechanism of action of both shark and bovine cartilage is immune modulation, rather than the supposed anti-angiogenic effects trumpeted by proponents of shark cartilage.

Compared to shark cartilage Bovine Tracheal Cartilage is:

Better Documented: More published studies with more carefully documented cases, and much longer follow-up of treated patients.

Less Expensive: Full dose shark cartilage therapy costs as much as $700.00/mo compared to $160.00 per month for full dose BTC therapy viagra without a doctor prescription canada.

Easier To Take: Shark cartilage therapy at full doses requires 60-90 grams a day orally or by enema. A significant number of people have difficulty taking this much due to nausea. Furthermore at this dose level, the high calcium content of shark cartilage could aggravate hypercalcemia which is a serious side effect of some cancers.

If you are interested in obtaining BTC Treatment, or want more information, see Steve Dunn's page...



Adapted from Steve Dunn's "CancerGuide":

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