The youngster from Martensville, Sask. The boy attracted national attention when a court ordered him to receive conventional treatment against the wishes of his parents. Doctors have since said the cancer has spread to his lungs, and they do not believe they can save him. But a clinic spokesman said yesterday he believes the cancer is throughout the boy's body.
Conventional medicine is skeptical.
On the other hand, it has yet to entirely reject shark cartilage. But not everyone has given up hope. A Quebec biotechnology company, Aeterna Laboratories, is developing a drug whose main ingredient is a liquid extract of shark cartilage. It will be tested in phase-3 clinical trials on more than 550 patients at 40 hospitals in the United States and Canada, including the Ottawa Regional Cancer Centre. The centre's Dr. William Evans is a principal investigator, along with Dr. Roy Herbst of the world-renowned M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.