cancro pancreas: case report

Case report

Therapeutic effect of the Rhopalurus junceus scorpion venom in patients suffering from pancreas cancer

* Case report

Therapeutic effect of the Rhopalurus junceus scorpion venom in patients suffering from pancreas cancer

Dra. Niudis Cruz Zamora1*
Dra. Maricela Espronceda Pérez
Dra. Caridad Li Serrano
Dr. Jorge A. Fernández García
Dra. Ma. Isabel Bermudez Domínguez
Dra. Neiza Verges Suárez

* Dr. Niudis Cruz Zamora, First Degree Specialist in General Comprehensive Medicine. Email: niudis.cruz@infomed.sld.cu
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Pancreas cancer accounts for a fifth of cancer-related deaths around the world and in the ongoing century it has hit 9 out of every 100,000 inhabitants [1,2].

Patients suffering from locally advanced diseases and metastasis are usually diagnosed in a late stage and are generally not eligible for surgical procedure, by far this only way to cure that disease up to now.

[3]. Systematic chemotherapy modestly increases survival rates in patients and in some cases, even though it could make them eligible for surgery, side effects related to these treatments might show up or persist.

The fact that barely 5 percent of patients show am average survival rate of 5 years and 23 percent of the total can only survive for just one year, the search for new therapeutic alternatives or treatments that could eventually improve life quality and the prospects of this disease is quite a challenge [4].

The venom of the Rhopalurus junceus scorpion, endemic to Cuba, has been used on the island nation’s traditional medicine to treat a number of diseases, including cancer [5]. Preclinical studies have shown the harmlessness of this products when administered orally, let alone its highly analgesic, anti-tumoral and anti-metastasis effects in lab animals (unpublished works).

The LABIOFAM Entrepreneurial Group has longstanding experience in the treatment of cancer and other pathologies through the use of venom extracted from this scorpion species. Based on these antecedents, a descriptive and retrospective study was conducted in an effort to find out the therapeutic effects of this natural product on patients suffering from pancreas cancer and treated in our institution in the course of the past five years.

Pain Scale

Level 0: Absence of pain.

Level 1: Minimum or moderate pain that requires no treatment or the use of pain relief medications.

Level 2: Severe pain that requires constant use of pain relief medications.

Level 3: Impairing pain that cannot be relieved through the use of medications

Materials and Methods

Search criterion: In order to assess the efficiency of scorpion venom treatment, LABIOFAM’s general medicine patient database, containing all medical files of patients who have been treated with this natural product, was browsed. Additional relevant information were obtained in the summaries of medical records, complementary checkups performed by the oncologist and a survey that’s conduction on a regular basis among patients and their relatives in a case-by-case breakdown. The browsing of the database embraced the past five years, from 2005 to 2010.

Patient selection criterion: Registries of histological confirmation of pancreas cancer were scoured, as well as the written consents of patients who based on their own therapeutic possibilities opted to undergoing an exclusive treatment with the scorpion venom.

Variables to take into account were: age groups, gender, pain level and survival rate.

Pain assessment: The effect of scorpion venom treatment to heal pain was gauged based on the pain scale used by the Ameijeiras Bros. Hospital and published by Sanchez and Col back in 2003 [6].

Results

Based on the database analysis, a total of 51 patients who showed clinical symptoms with characteristics and medical evidence linked to pancreas cancer were rounded out. However, only 17 of those patients met all necessary selection requirements previously established for this research study.

None of the cases treated with scorpion venom showed signs of toxicity referred to the product. The largest chunk of patients were female and the age group swayed between 60 and 64 years old, as well as over 80 years old (Table 1). High percentages of the disease in these groups match the fact that this ailment accounts for the first and second causes of death among people between 60 and 69 years of age, and 80 years of age, respectively [7].

In the case of genre, pancreas cancer affects more male individuals than female ones, a figure that doesn’t match the registries in which the number of women patients stands for a staggering 77 percent in all. However, during 2008 and 2009, more men than women died of this disease [8].

Assessment of the pain relief effect was made in the first year of treatment. In the analysis of table 2, a particular feature that struck the attention was the natural product’s remarkable analgesic effects, especially when the percentage figures of pain-afflicted patients at the beginning of the treatment, suffering from severe or impairing pain, was a shopping 88.3 percent. Three months into the treatment, the overall health of patients improved as the number of cases suffering from level 2 and level 3 pain went down to 47.05 percent. Following a full year of treatment with scorpion venom, around 76.47 percent of patients only suffered from minimum or moderate pain (level 1) (Table 2).

Clinical trials with Chinese scorpion venom (Bhutus martensii karsh) have shown the potential of these substances for pain relief treatments [10, 11]. In addition, a number of active principles with higher analgesic effects than morphine were discovered during experimentation trials conducted with lab animals [12]. This Asian species’ venom has been used in Chinese traditional medicine for treating such illnesses as epilepsy, meningitis-induced pain, rheumatism, among others.

The most important variable assessed in this study was the survival rate of patients suffering from pancreas cancer that were treated with this product (Table 3), containing survival years during a five-year period.

Survival rate in the five-year period overpasses the average rate for pancreas cancer and according to which just 20 percent and 5 percent of all patients reach one and five years of survival, respectively [9].

This disease evolves with marked deterioration of the overall clinical status [10] while the survival rate of those patients who were treated with scorpion venom clearly show better life quality and stabilization of the oncologic disease.

The combination of clinical and preclinical studies performed on other scorpion venoms, coupled with recent experimental upshots of studies conducted on the Cuban species’ venom, bear out all evidence observed in this paper and demonstrate the therapeutic potentials of the Rhopalurus junceus venom as an alternative treatment for cancer-suffering patients.



Bibliography

1. Bayraktar S, Bayraktar DU, Rocha-Lima MC. Recent developments in palliative chemotherapy for locally advanced and metastatic pancreas cancer. World J Gastroenterol 2010; 16(6):673-82.

2. Jemal A, Siegel R, Ward E, Hao Y, Xu J, Thun MJ. Cancer statistics, 2009. CA Cancer J Clin 2009; 59:225-49.

3. Richter J, Saif WM. Locally Advanced Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma: Where Are We and Where Are We Going? JOP. J Pancreas 2010; 11(2):139-43.

4. American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts and Figures 2009. Disponible en: http://www.cancer.org/downloads/2009-500809web.pdf.

5. De Armas LF. Escorpiones del Archipiélago Cubano. lV. Nueva Especie de Rhopalurus (Scorpionida: Buthidae). Poeyana 1974; 136:1-12.

6. Ministerio de Salud Pública. Anuario Estadístico de salud 2009.

7. Anuario Estadístico 2008 – Morbilidad. Disponible en (http://bvs.sld.cu/cgi-bin/wxis/anuario/?IsisScript=anuario/iah.xis&tag80...)

8. Sánchez MM, Carnot UJ, Feites M E., De Castro A R., Muñío PJ, Martínez HC, Pérez RG, Candebat CR. Tratamiento quirúrgico de las lesiones de la columna vertebral en pacientes con mieloma múltiple. Rev. Cubana Med. 2003; 42(4) 13-22

9. Pan Yi Zheng, Tang Ye Lei (Deptartment of Neurology,The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou ZHEJIANG 310009, China);Scorpion venom injection in treatment of neuralgia[J];Chinese Journal of New Drugs and Clinical Remedies;2000-03

10. Deng Yan ping, Xu Guo zhu, Wang Wei, Shen Xiao heng, Chen Qing tang, Gao Hui zhen, Pan Yi zheng, Zhu Tian yue, Zhu Du ming, Zhou Xian mei, Liu Ya li, Cai Zhi ji. (National Institute on Drug Dependence, Peking Universit;Clinical evaluation of analgesic effect and safety of scorpion venom injection[J];Chinese Pharmaceutical Journal;2002-06

11. Shao J, Kang N, Liu Y, Song S, Wu C, Zhang J. 2007. Purification and characterization of an analgesic peptide from Buthus martensii Karsch Biomed. Chromatogr. 21: 1266–1271

Buongiono Xena, si puo' avere una traduzione di questo testo?
GRAZIE.

ciao barbi,
puoi farlo con google per aver una traduzione sommaria
i documenti scientifici nn si traducono in genere per la complessità dei termini specifici,io non posso farlo,
per tradurre un testo così specifico bisogna essere medici e conoscere perfettamente la lingua.

Ciao Xena, scusami... se ho avanzato questa richiesta, e' perche ho visto che sono stati tradotti altri testi..in questo forum.
Grazie, buonagiornata.

barbi ha scritto:Ciao Xena, scusami... se ho avanzato questa richiesta, e' perche ho visto che sono stati tradotti altri testi..in questo forum.
Grazie, buonagiornata.

Non scusarti...
comunque basta inserire il testo su google traduttore ...
ciao