Nature and a cure for cancer
25
Nov
The brazilian social debate after a court order requiring the USP to provide a
miracle cure for cancer healing, phosphoethanolamine, the USP contested, now comes the prestigious scientific journal Nature, which defends the position of USP.
The last issue of the magazine brings along with an paper, the reconstitution of the way of the substance, from its preparation and an alleged efficacy, yet inconclusive tests until its unofficial distribution and because the Brazilian court decided to intervene to limit their circulation due to clinical tests are required to be distributed.
The compound, phosphoethanolamine f, has been shown to kill tumour cells only in lab dishes and in mice (A. K. Ferreira et al. Anticancer Res. 32, 95–104; 2012). Drugs that seem promising in lab and animal studies have a notoriously high failure rate in human trials.
Despite this, some chemists at the University of São Paulo’s campus in São Carlos have manufactured the compound for years and distributed it to people with cancer. A few of those patients have claimed remarkable recoveries, perpetuating the compound’s reputation as a miracle cure.
Some of these patients have claimed remarkable recoveries, perpetuating the reputation of the compound as a miracle cure, but scientifically
