Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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AIDS TREATMENT NEWS Issue #304, October 2, 1998
Fred Gardner
[Ten years later, in August 1998, Dr. Gorter was interviewed by Fred Gardner, who is managing editor of SYNAPSE, the newspaper at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center. The interview covered two topics: an update on Iscador (a mistletoe extract administered by injection, to improve the immune response), and also a large European study of cannabis (and a separate project researching a non- psychoactive marijuana ingredient called cannabidiol, or CBD). We split the interview into two articles; the one on cannabis will appear later in AIDS TREATMENT NEWS.
Robert Gorter, M.D., associate clinical professor at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center (Department of Family and Community Medicine), is also the medical director of the European Institute for Oncological and Immunological Research, a nonprofit with headquarters in Berlin and offices in Milan and Amsterdam. Despite his worldwide commuting and constant exposure to pathogens, the 51-year-old doctor has not been sick since 1968. He credits his good health to an extract of mistletoe marketed in Europe under the brand name "Iscador," which he is now studying in clinical trials.
Fred Gardner: What is the status of your Iscador trial?
Dr. Gorter: The usual steps in introducing a new product are to first do laboratory and animal studies, and then phase I, II, and III trials in humans. We had to proceed differently because Iscador is a well-known, licensed medication, available by prescription and paid for in Europe by most national healthcare systems. So it would be hard to find patients who want to participate in a randomized, placebo- controlled trial; nobody wants that when they can easily get the medication from their physician. Therefore we are doing the phase III trials in countries where mistletoe is unknown- -South Africa, Poland, and others.
Gardner: Could you describe some of the research?
Dr. Gorter: We are doing a randomized study in Europe of Iscador on women with cervix dysplasia--a pre-cancerous condition that is highly correlated with human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. People who develop cervix carcinoma are women who cannot clear HPV infection. With Iscador, it appears they can. We have a very high regression of cervix dysplasia in this study, which involves 200 people and 12 universities.
Iscador and HIV
Gardner: What have you learned about Iscador and HIV?
Dr. Gorter: We have found that when patients start Iscador, they stabilize; there is no further progression, not with various markers and not clinically for many, many years. We are awaiting the results of three studies we are now conducting in South Africa. Iscador is being compared against and in addition to combination antiretroviral therapy. My impression is that in combination with standard therapy, there will be a beneficial effect because of the immune modulating activities. At the World AIDS conference in Geneva it was suggested that anti-retroviral therapy should be combined with immune modulating therapy--to not just hit the virus with toxic substances, but add supportive measures for the immune system.
For More Information
For more information, see the abstracts on AIDSLINE and MEDLINE; search for 'Iscador'. You can search these databases free through the World Wide Web, at http://igm.nlm.nih.gov.
Also, you can contact Dr. Robert Gorter at the European Institute for Oncological and Immunological Research, email robertgorter@compuserve.com, fax +49-30-315-74444.
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