I Owe My Life to Mistletoe, Says Cancer Victim

A BREAST cancer patient claims a remedy based on mistletoe has saved her life.

Nicola Wicksteed said her tumour shrank by half after a month of treatment with mistletoe extract.

Two months later, she said, it had disappeared.

Mrs Wicksteed, 50, decided against surgery or chemotherapy when a 3in tumour was found in her breast in December 2003.

With the help of doctors specialising in herbal and alternative medicine-she started a regime of injectingan extract from the mistletoe plant instead.

She also added another herbal remedy called Carctol, a blend of eight Indian herbs.

A month later, after combining both treatments with hormone therapy, the tumour was half the size. Doctors have since told her that her cells are back to normal and the tumour has gone.

Studies have shown mistletoe extract can stop tumour cells dividing but there are few documented cases of it eliminating a tumour.

Last night, cancer experts warned patients to be wary of alternative treatments, saying studies were not conclusive, and that mistletoe could even be harmful.

But Mrs Wicksteed, a property landlord from Windermere, Cumbria, is convinced of its healing properties.

‘I think the results are down to the natural drugs supporting my immune system,’ she said. ‘I know chemotherapy can be successful in destroying cancer cells. But it also attacks the immune system, which is the one thing I feel is important to protect.’ She also ate healthily, including short grain brown rice and organic vegetables in her diet.

Dr Maurice Orange, a GP and clinical director at the Park Attwood Clinic in Worcestershire where she was treated, said the results were remarkable.

‘There is nothing there at all now,’ he said. ‘It does not mean the cancer has completely gone but clinically she is now in full remission, which has delighted everyone.’ A Cancer Research UK spokesman said it was too soon to regard mistletoe as a cure.

‘We don’t really understand what is in it and there is some suggestion the chemicals in it might actually cause cancer. There are many other cancer treatments that have been developed from natural products, but that is a result of lots of laboratory work and clinical trials.’