Intravenous Mistletoe Treatment in Integrative Cancer Care: A Qualitative Study Exploring the Procedures, Concepts, and Observations of Expert Doctors

Table 2

Randomized and nonrandomized controlled clinical trials on intravenous mistletoe treatment in cancer.

Author, year	Site	Stage	Intervention; (evaluable patients)	Survival		Immune parameters	Quality of life
Büssing et al. 2008 [41]	Breast	No data	(i) (5-Fu) EC, Iscador (32); (ii) (5-Fu) EC (33)			Granulocyte function, lymphocytes: no difference	Reduction of EC-related side effects: nausea, constipation, pain, stomatitis.; EORTC C30, BR 23: no difference
Schink et al. 2007 [44]	Colon, rectum	II–IV	(i) Surgery, Iscador (11); (ii) Surgery (11)			Decreased surgery-induced suppression of NK-cell activity
Büssing et al. 2005 [45]	Breast (suspected)		(i) Surgery, Iscador (47); (ii) Surgery (51)			Decreased surgery-induced suppression of granulocyte function
Cazacu et al. 2003 [42]	Colon, rectum	Dukes C and D	(i) Surgery, 5-Fu, Isorel (29); (ii) Surgery, 5-Fu (21); (iii) Surgery (14)	Median | mean survival (months)	Dukes C | D		5-FU side effects (% of pat.); 0%; 19%; QoL: ↑, data not shown
					25| 17
					18 | 7
					17 | 15
Heiny 1991 [43]	Breast	Progredient	(i) VEC, Eurixor (21); (ii) VEC, placebo (19)				QoL ↑, anxiety ↓, leucopenia ↓.; No effect on thrombocytes

: single infusion. EC: epirubicin, cyclophosphamide; 5-Fu: 5-fluorouracil; V: vindesine; NK-cells: natural killer cells; ↑: increase; ↓: decrease; statistically significant superior compared with control group.