Krebiozen (creatine monohydrate in mineral oil)

animal tissue

provenance:animal tissue

first introduced:1949

regulatory status:banned

context:Stevan Durovic, a Yugoslav physician, claimed to have derived Krebiozen from the blood of Argentinean horses inoculated with Actinomyces bovis. He brought the substance to Andrew C. Ivy in Chicago in 1949. The Krebiozen Research Foundation distributed it as an injectable cancer treatment from 1951 onward, keeping the composition secret.

MECHANISM CLAIMED

Ivy and Durovic claimed Krebiozen stimulated the body's own defenses against cancer through an undefined immunological or enzymatic mechanism. Ivy framed this using enzyme-analysis data from uncontrolled case observations; the precise mode of action was never described in terms compatible with contemporary biochemistry.

INTERVENTIONS USING IT

Krebiozen Cancer Treatment

NOTES

Krebiozen was the commercial name given by Stevan Durovic to a substance he claimed to have derived from the blood of Argentinean horses inoculated with Actinomyces bovis. When the FDA analyzed samples in 1963, it found the vials contained creatine monohydrate dissolved in mineral oil; some samples contained only mineral oil with no other identifiable ingredient (CA Cancer J Clin 1973, PMID 4196527; Mütter Museum article, January 2020). Creatine monohydrate is a common naturally occurring compound involved in muscle energy metabolism, with no established anticancer mechanism. The composition was kept secret from independent researchers throughout the 1950s on the grounds that premature disclosure would allow competitors to copy the formula before the Krebiozen Research Foundation could patent it.

In 1959, after early sales attracted regulatory scrutiny, Ivy introduced a reformulated version called Carcalon and charged separately for it. The 1973 ACS review (PMID 4196527) evaluated both Krebiozen and Carcalon and found no evidence of antitumor activity in either.