Shark cartilage is a popular folk remedy for cancer, although there is no scientific evidence that it works. But a new study may dull its appeal :. Scientists reported last week that not only sharks get cancer, but they may even have a cartilage cancer
Sharks have a low incidence of cancer, researchers say. This fact, as well as research in 1983 showing a shark cartilage protein that inhibits blood vessels supporting tumor was taken advantage of by alternative medicine entrepreneurs into a lucrative business selling shark cartilage powder and pills as combatants cancer. The craze went into high gear in the mid-190s, following the publication of a best-selling book, Sharks Do not Get Cancer (William Lane, the owner of a patent for the shark cartilage powder), and a large dose of advertising in a 1993 segment 60 Minutes CBS . The developers also praised the work of biochemist Carl Luer of Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida, who has tried unsuccessfully to induce cancer in sharks by exposing the two carcinogens. But Luer himself said "there is no evidence that the cartilage which protect them," and a clinical study of 1998 revealed the shark cartilage ineffective against human cancers.
Sharks outside the laboratory, however, seem to suffer from them tumors. Researchers on Gary Ostrander cancer at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and John Harshberger of George Washington University in Washington, DC, say they have found at least 40 cases of cancer in sharks and their close relatives after reviewing the scientific literature and fish tumor samples from the registry of the National Institute cancer tumors in lower animals. The three cases included cancers of cartilage. The results were announced today in San Francisco at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research
Ostrander hope the study will help to explode the "huge myth" that sharks are immune against the cancer. - A shared misunderstanding even by "people in my field," he said. He added that the right record may also help protect sharks, which the American Fisheries Society recently named as one of the most threatened groups of the world fish because of their low reproductive rate.
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