Mistletoe treatment in cancer-related fatigue: a case report.
Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is a major and very common disabling condition in cancer patients. Treatment options do exist but have limited therapeutic effects. Mistletoe extracts are widely-used complementary cancer treatments whose possible impact on CRF has not been investigated in detail. A 36-year-old Swedish woman with a 10-year history of recurrent breast cancer, suffering from severe CRF, started complementary cancer treatment with mistletoe extracts. Over two and a half years a correspondence was observed between the intensity of mistletoe therapy and the fatigue. Mistletoe extracts seemed to have a beneficial, dose-dependent effect on CRF. Although such effect has also been noted in clinical studies, it has never been the subject of detailed investigation. More research should clarify these observations.
Wode
Kathrin
K
Vidarkliniken, S-15391 Järna, Sweden. kathrin.wode@karolinska.se.
Schneider
Thomas
T
Lundberg
Ingrid
I
Kienle
Gunver S
GS