Claim · 1952 · Laetrile (Amygdalin, marketed as "Vitamin B17")
Laetrile is an anticancer drug.
TIME’s 1976 history reports that Krebs proposed laetrile as an anticancer drug in 1952. When the National Cancer Institute solicited cases thought to show objective benefit from physicians and pro-laetrile groups in 1978, only 93 cases were submitted out of an estimated 70,000 Americans who had used it, and a blinded panel of oncologists judged just six of 68 laetrile courses to show any response. The 1982 NCI-sponsored clinical trial found no substantive benefit in cure, tumor response, survival, or symptom relief among 175 evaluable patients. The 2011 Cochrane review concluded that benefit claims were not supported by sound clinical data.
Appears in
Sources
- Medicine: Laetrile Crackdown — "Medicine: Laetrile Crackdown." TIME, 7 June 1976.
- Laetrile/Amygdalin (PDQ) - Health Professional Version — PDQ Integrative, Alternative, and Complementary Therapies Editorial Board. Laetrile/Amygdalin (PDQ) - Health Professional Version. National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health. Last updated 14 June 2022.
- Special Report on Laetrile: The NCI Laetrile Review. Results of the National Cancer Institute's Retrospective Laetrile Analysis — Ellison NM, Byar DP, Newell GR. Special Report on Laetrile: The NCI Laetrile Review. Results of the National Cancer Institute's Retrospective Laetrile Analysis. New England Journal of Medicine 299, no. 10 (7 September 1978): 549-552. PMID: 683212. DOI: 10.1056/NEJM197809072991013.
- A Clinical Trial of Amygdalin (Laetrile) in the Treatment of Human Cancer — Moertel CG, Fleming TR, Rubin J, Kvols LK, Sarna G, Koch R, Currie VE, Young CW, Jones SE, Davignon JP. A Clinical Trial of Amygdalin (Laetrile) in the Treatment of Human Cancer. New England Journal of Medicine 306, no. 4 (28 January 1982): 201-206. PMID: 7033783. DOI: 10.1056/NEJM198201283060403.
- Laetrile Treatment for Cancer — Milazzo S, Ernst E, Lejeune S, Boehm K, Horneber M. "Laetrile Treatment for Cancer." Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, no. 11 (9 November 2011): CD005476. PMID: 22071824. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD005476.pub3.