• GcMAF UPDATE: With A Tried & True Cancer Cure That Activates Cancer-Killing Macrophages Having Been Removed From The Market, Are There Any Natural Alternatives?

    Posted June 4, 2018: by Bill Sardi

    We live in an era of cancer immunotherapy. Oncologists once vehemently denied cancer could ever be overcome by the human immune system. A report in the British Medical Journal dated May 24, 1969 stated: “immunotherapy in patients with advanced disease is doomed to disappointment.”i

    Over 50 years ago, even in the face of Dr. Chester Southam injecting millions of cancer cells into elderly patients (without their consent) to prove the human immune system is capable of resisting cancer when intentionally induced, Dr. Southam was unfairly demonized on ethical grounds and cancer immunotherapy was roundly denounced.ii Yet today immunotherapy is the most promising weapon in the fight against cancer.iii

    White blood cells called macrophages that literally seek out and engulf cancer cells are considered to be the major player in controlling tumor-generated inflammation.iv Uncontrolled inflammation leads to the development of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) that feed tumor growth.v In turn, that leads to the release of malignant tumor cells into the blood circulation that facilitates the spread of cancer (metastasis), which is considered the mortal form of the disease.vi

    While there are pro-inflammatory macrophages, in a healthy state the liver naturally produces a macrophage activation factor (Gc protein Macrophage Activating Factor or GcMAF) to stimulate macrophages that digest cancer cells but limit inflammation. But an undesirable enzyme, nagalase, prevents internal GcMAF synthesis and degrades GcMAF that naturally protects from macrophage-orchestrated destruction, i.e. disengages a key factor in cancer immunity.vii

    GcMAF cancer cure announced in 2008

    Having broken the story about GcMAF (Gc protein macrophage activating factor) in 2008 with biochemist Timothy Hubbell, I have been a careful observer of events following the revelation that a blood protein (GcMAF) can inhibit an enzyme (nagalase) that disarms macrophages, a white blood cell that literally digests cancer cells. Our original report about GcMAF has faded into obscurity as concerned parties, recognizing unusual number of deaths among physicians who dared to bring GcMAF into use clinical use, began to bury our report for our own protection. You have to go to the Wayback Machine to find it.viii

    Any agent that inhibits nagalase would unleash macrophages to do their job of removing pathogens and malignancies from the blood circulation. Healthy adults are reported to produce GcMAF and have low levels of nagalase (between 0.32 and 0.95 nanomole/min/milligram). It cannot be said that exogenously instilled GcMAF is unproven when works continuously to activate macrophages and keep cancer from spreading.

    Successful GcMAF private enterprise put under by regulators

    Immuno Biotech (UK; Isle of Guernsey)/ First Immune (Sweden)ix in Europe gleaned GcMAF from blood plasma and offered it for sale worldwide under the leadership of David Noakes, whose company has been derailed by a collaboration of health authorities in Europe including Interpol and at the present time Mr. Noakes is up for a court appearance on charges that could put him in jail.x Members of the Immuo Biotech scientific staff are also charged with criminal conduct.xi

    Regulators put Immuno Biotech out of business for being an unlicensed facility and not meeting Good Manufacturing Practices. In other words, their paperwork wasn’t conformant. The actual GcMAF therapy was never evaluated. There were no serious side effects reported from First Immune’s GcMAF injectable product to this writer’s knowledge.

    Treating cancer with disproven remedies and dismissing unproven ones

    We now face the inexplicable dilemma that ineffective and even toxic cancer treatments are approved for use while a natural blood plasma protein that protects from cancer in healthy individuals via macrophage activation is deemed to be unproven and therefore the public should be warned away from it (but how can that be when it is working daily in billions of healthy people?).

    I obtained injectable GcMAF to evaluate firsthand and provided it to an end-stage pancreatic cancer patient whose tumor markers rapidly normalized and scans revealed only remnants of remaining cancer.

    Confronted with cures, the news media buries the story

    Many testimonials of cures were reported and Mr. Noakes actually invited BBC News to an event to speak to cured patients who had unsuccessfully undergone conventional cancer treatments and were basically left for dead. BBC chose to air a negative story about Immuno Biotech rather than broadcast interviews from patients who had successfully overcome cancer with GcMAF.xii

    In October of 2016 I wrote this comment on by blog:

    BBC News Slams Unlicensed Cancer Cure. But is it all as it seems?

    GcMAF is produced internally in the human body.  It is vitamin D binding protein with a sugar molecule knocked off.  It activates the human immune system to kill off cancer cells and it gained attention in 2010. [National Health Federation 2009]

    Today gcMAF (gc protein macrophage activating factor) is being slammed as an unlicensed and overpriced cancer cure by BBC News.  [BBC News Oct 16, 2016]

    Said to be “scientifically extremely dubious” by Cancer Research UK, the criticism is undeserved if for no other reason than it is the way the human body self-controls cancer.  It is backed by independent research.  [Best Practices Research Clinical Endocrinology Metabolism Oct 2015]

    True, there are inconsistencies in the initial gcMAF research published by Nobuto Yamamoto. [Cancer Immunology Immunotherapy Dec 2014]

    But a private European-based company, Immuno Biotech, has documented shrinkage of tumor volume with GcMAF. [Anticancer Research July 2014]  GcMAF has also been shown to reduce a key enzyme (nagalase) associated with aggressive growth of tumors. [Oncoimmunology Aug 1, 2013]

    If gcMAF is some sort of fraud, why did the Department of Defense sponsor a study on its ability to inhibit the growth of prostate cancer cells, which by the way was accomplished independent activation of macrophages? [PLoS One Oct 18, 2010]

    Immuno Biotech, the European-based company that is producing GcMAF commercially is hiding nothing.  First Immune has sponsored 31 research papers on the subject. [First Immune]  Goleic, the olive oil-based GcMAF product is meticulously produced and undergoes 9 tests, including two for sterility and three for activity and potency. [Immunocentre] Aside from a mild fever, there have been no reported side effects.  The cancer cell killing activity of GcMAF can be viewed online. [YouTube]

    GcMAF unavailable today

    Today the only readily available source of GcMAF is an oral colostrum-based (first milk) dietary supplement sold online that is encapsulated and bottled in the USA from GcMAF powder obtained from Japan.xiii Its effectiveness is estimated to be marginable given less than flattering remarks by users.

    Researchers don’t give up

    Researchers continue to delve into nagalase inhibition as a “key to curing cancer.” They surmise and predict that: “the use of gene silencing methods, reduced expression of nagalase and consequently reduced cancer cell invasion capability can be achieved.” To that end, a natural enzyme inhibitor could be utilized.

    Enzyme inhibitors

    It is well established that polyphenols derived from turmeric spice (curcumin), grapes (resveratrol), pomegranate, apple peel (quercetin) and tea leaves (catechin) are natural enzyme inhibitors, though they remain untested for nagalase inhibition.

    Plant polysaccharides (sugar-like molecules)

    Botanical sources of polysaccharides are well documented to control inflammation and activate macrophages.xiv Oligosaccharides derived from mushroomsxv and algae (spirulina, blue green algae) have received considerable attention in this regard.xvi

    Herbal extracts of oligosaccharides (sugar-like molecules in a chain) such as found in Panax ginsengxvii and Boswellia from Frankincensexviii, serve as other examples.

    Fucoidan and nagalase

    Fucoidan is a seaweed extract rich in polysaccharides that is widely offered as a cancer remedy and immune booster. At high concentrations fucoidan has been demonstrated to inhibit nagalase in a lab dish with tumor cells that have high nagalase activity.xix

    Use of a decoy molecule: chondroitin sulfate

    Researchers also report that a decoy molecule that interferes with nagalase could be used as a competitive/alternative inhibitor of GcMAF, thus reducing the degradation of GcMAF. This is apparently how Gc protein works in part by binding to chondroitin sulfate.xx Chondroitin sulfate is internally produced within the matrix of cartilage in the human body and is a constituent of connective tissue.

    There are macrophages that increase inflammation. However, internally made chondroitin sulfate sustains anti-inflammatory macrophages.xxi Supplemental chondroitin would presumably do the same.

    The provision of chondroitin sulfate to laboratory mice is reported to reduce inflammation and subsequently reduce atherosclerotic arterial plaque and has application in cancer-induced inflammation.xxii

    The combination of supplemental chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine is reported to reduce a marker of inflammation (C-reactive protein) by 23% in healthy humans and therefore reduce the risk for cancer.xxiii

    Chondroitin sulfate activates cancer-destructive macrophages in a lab dish.xxiv The application of chondroitin sulfate in cancer control appears to have been ignored.

    Altering tumor pH to effect a cure: sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)

    Yet another intriguing new avenue of investigation is alteration of pH (acid/alkaline balance). If the pH of the area surrounding tumors could be locally increased towards alkalinity the nagalase enzyme would cease to function and macrophages could do their job of digesting malignant cells.xxv

    This topic has recently gained widespread public attention in the news media that alteration of pH by use of oral sodium bicarbonate (yes, baking soda) may serve to abolish the acidic environment surrounding tumor cells that provokes dormant cancer cells out of hiding and makes them vulnerable to treatment. Baking soda also increases activity of T-cells (thymus cells), another type of white blood cell.xxvi

    Tumor cells voraciously derive energy from sugar rather than oxygen as normal healthy cells do. As sugar devourers these malignant cells expel lactic acid, which creates an acidic barrier around tumors. When chemotherapy was combined with an infusion of sodium bicarbonate, tumor cell eradication increased from 63% to 100%! Researchers surmise that alteration of the tumor environment towards alkalinity might increase natural tumor cell die-off (apoptosis) by tumor pH alone.xxvii It is well established that tumor cells hijack macrophages by expelling lactic acid.xxviii

    The problem is the sodium bicarbonate was injected into the tumor areas in the animal experiments, which rules out home use. Will oncologists begin to utilize this simple pre-cure? And will it release macrophages to effect a cure on its own? If so it would be known as the ten-cent cancer cure.

    Given that oncologists have treatments but no cures for cancer, patients are left to try natural remedies in an unguided fashion. Fortunately, the remedies mentioned above are relatively safe (unlikely to result in hospitalization or the demise of the patient) and can be utilized as nutritional support rather than advertised as a cure. Whether complete cures will be reported with their use is unknown. But given the lack of alternatives, a desperate cancer patient may use these remedies with little if any risk or interference with conventional cancer treatment and the potential of a high upside.

    ©2018 Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc. Used with permission by Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients.

    References
    i Fairley GH, Immunity to malignant disease in man. British Medical Journal, volume 2 (5655), pages 467-73, May 24, 1969.

    ii 1962: Dr. Chester Southam injected live cancer cells into 22 elderly patients. Alliance for Human Research Protection.

    iii Healy M, Immunotherapy is the newest weapon in the first against cancer. Los Angeles Times, Oct 13, 2017.

    iv Solinas G, et al, Tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) as major players of the cancer-related inflammation. Journal Leukocyte Biology, Vol. 86, pages1065-73, Nov 2009.

    v Ono M., Molecular links between tumor angiogenesis and inflammation: inflammatory stimuli of macrophages and cancer cells as targets for therapeutic strategy. Cancer Science, Aug. 2008.

    vi Bielenberg, DR, et al, The contribution of angiogenesis to the process of metastasis. Cancer Journal, vol. 21, pages 267-73, July 2015.

    vii McCarty MF, Overview of macrophage activating factor and the nagalase assay—potentional for control of micrometastasis or early primary cancer. Semantic Scholar 2013.

    viii Sardi, B, Hubbell T, Cancer Cured For Good, National Health Federation. October, 2008.

    ix First Immune: https://gcmaf.se

    x Regulator warns against GcMAF made in unlicensed facility in Cambridgeshire. February 3, 2015, at Gov.UK

    xi Immuno Biotech staff appear in court linked with GcMAF profits. Bailiwick Express, January 16, 2018.

    xii Unlicensed blood drug GcMAF still for sale. BBC News, Sept. 27, 2015.

    xiii GcMAF Colostrum, Fractal Health. Amazon.com

    xiv Schepetkin IA, Quinn MT, Botanical polysaccharides: macrophage immunomodulation and therapeutic potential. International Immunopharmacology, vol. 6, pages 317-33, March 2006

    xv Friedman M, Mushroom Polysaccharides: Chemistry and Antiobesity, Antidiabetes, Anticancer, and Antibiotic Properties in Cells, Rodents, and Humans. Foods, vol. 5, page 80, 2016

    xvi

    xvii Jiao L, et al, Anti-tumour and immunomodulatory activities of oligosaccharides isolated from Panax Ginseng C.A. Meyer. International Journal Biological Macromolecules, vol. 65, Pages 229-33, April 2014.

    xviii Boswellin Water Soluble (Polysal) 70% polysaccharides), Sabinsa.com

    xix Bakunina I, et al, The effect of Fucoidan from brown alga focus evanescence on the activity of a-N-Acetylgalactosaminidase of human colon carcinoma cells. Marine Drugs, May 2018.

    xx Ruggerio, M, et al, Is chondroitin sulfate responsible for the biological effects attributed to the GC protein-derived Macrophage Activating Factor (GcMAF)?. Medical Hypotheses, Vol. 94, pages 1256-31, Sept. 2016.

    xxi Corradetti, B, et al, Immune tuning scaffold for the local induction of a pro-regenerative environment. Scientific Reports Dec. 5, 2017.

    xxii Melgar-Lesmes, P, et al, Treatment with chondroitin sulfate to modulate inflammation and atherogenesis in obesity. Atherosclerosis, volume 245, pages 82-87, Feb. 2016.

    xxiii Navarro SL, Randomized trial of glucosamine and chondroitin supplementation on inflammation and oxidative stress biomarkers and plasma proteomics profiles in healthy humans. PLoS One, Feb 26, 2015.

    xxiv Stephenson EL, Chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans as novel drivers of leucocyte infiltration in multiple sclerosis. Brain, vol. 4, pages 1094-1100, April 1, 2018.

    xxv Saburi, E, et al, Is a-N-acetylgalactosaminidase the key to curing cancer? A mini-review and hypothesis. Journal of the Balkan Union of Oncology, Nov-Dec 22 (6): 1372-77.

    xxvi Blanchard S, Drinking baking soda could help cure cancer: kitchen ingredient makes hard-to-reach tumour cells easier to target with drugs, study finds. Daily Mail, May 31, 2018; How might baking soda boost cancer therapy. Ludwig Cancer Research, May 31, 2018.

    xxvii Zhang H, Will cancer cells be defeated by sodium bicarbonate? Science China Life Sciences, vol. 60, pages 326-28, 2017.

    xxviii Bronte, V, Tumor cells hijack macrophages via lactic acid. Immunology & Cell Biology, vol. 92, pages 647-49, 2014.

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