Pathological studies on three cases of cancer treated with polysaccharides from human-type Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Antitumor activity through collagen fiber proliferation.
Three cases of cancer treated with SSM (Special Substance, Maruyama: a polysaccharide extract from Mycobacterium tuberculosis) for a long period were studied pathologically following biopsies and autopsies. The most significant antitumor activity resulting from SSM treatment was found to be collagenation from stromal cells and the cancer cells themselves. Another significant finding was that collagenation was promoted by macrophages which had been stimulated non-specifically. However, it was apparent that SSM-A or B had to be used efficiently and quickly in order to prevent invasion or metastasis of cancer. Collagenation due to SSM treatment was more marked in metastatic cancer lesions in the liver than those in the lung. In a case of breast cancer reported in a previous investigation of SSM treatment, remarkable calcification was found in a metastatic cancer lesion which had become confined through collagenation, thus preventing cancer cell metastasis. The collagenation of cancerous lesions through SSM treatment resembled the healing of caseous tuberculosis lesions through a similar mechanism.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001706:Biopsy; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology; D003094:Collagen / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000502:physiology*; D004354:Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; D005260:Female; D006651:Histocytochemistry; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology*; D011135:Polysaccharides, Bacterial / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012004:Rectal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology
D011135:Polysaccharides, Bacterial; D003094:Collagen