unusual treatments -- extract from shark blood

[Guest guest]

About ten years ago when I was researching the active component in

celphalopods (such as squid) against certain late stage and otherwise

intractable cancers, I remembered seeing a two-volume folio-sized

book set on Marine Toxicology at the chem library at Berkeley. It

was written by Bruce Halstead, a physician who lived in Southern California.

I met with Bruce (who was up in his seventies) and we spent many

pleasant afternoons going through his library and his files. One day

he asked me to visit and he gave me two things -- I think that he was

prescient that he would soon die -- he gave me some of the very first

laetrile that was synthesized early in the last century at Berkeley,

and he gave me his shark blood file.

Back in the early and mid eighties he funded research (about

$750,000) for the use of a complement component from the blood of

sharks. This was in conjunction with a chemist located in Maui,

Hawaii. Bruce had a practice in Colton, CA (near Loma ) where

he was able to try many novel treatments for cancer. The treatment

he was most excited about was a particular extract from shark

blood. It seemed to cure every case of cancer even in nanomole quantities.

Sharks have quite unusual immune systems. They are loaded with

native, non-antigen driven IgM, but they have no IgG nor even albumen

in their blood. Much of the research was done for commercial

development, but the chemist who was doing the extractions died

leaving nothing more than the research files. There have been others

who have worked on shark IgM, etc. but I have seen no continuation of

this line of research.

It was problematic doing this kind of work in the early

eighties. The shark had to be gaffed, suspended from the head,

exsanguinated, the blood clotted, centrifuged, filtered and stored at

-80C as proteinases would destroy the complement. Much has happened

in chemistry during the last 20 years that has allowed easier methods

of extraction, separation, and storage.

I have not pursued this line of research simply because of lack of

funding and liability issues. Bruce had constant problems with the

medical and governmental authorities and I have too many

responsibilities to be some kind of revolutionary.

If I had cancer that I could not otherwise conquer, I think that I

would gather up a few tools from the lab and fly to Hawaii. The most

effective types of shark blood (of the ten types tested) come from

sharks that are not that common. I do think that there are those who

would exploit this resource and decimate the relevant shark

populations much like the dog fish shark population depletion from

those seeking cartilage. Actually it is not necessary to kill the

shark. They can be raised in oversized home salt water aquaria and

then from time to time anesthetized and the blood extracted directly

from the heart or from the caudal vein.

I might put my two sons on this as I have had no time to work on it

since opening the cancer retreat center. My 15 y/o has a natural

talent and the 21 y/o is finishing college in Hawaii. It would be

nice to see them work together.