Even in the case of pancreatic cancer, surgery can be effective in a few cases, and there are hints that BTC may be synergistic with 5-FU, a chemotherapy drug often used in treating pancreatic cancer. There have been successes in quite a few other types of cancer as well, and in fact BTC's apparent broad spectrum of activity is one of its major attractions. I have selected these three cancers as particularly promising mostly based on there being slightly more data for them. I don't believe there is any experience with the leukemias where one would not expect immunotherapy to work. Patients with leukemia should probably look elsewhere.
Many leukemias are very sensitive to traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy.
Dr. Prudden believes the main mechanism of action is immune modulation by polysaccharide components of BTC, although there may also be a direct cytostatic effect as well. There is well documented evidence that oral polysaccharides can have immune modulatory and anti-tumor effect in humans. One of these studies was even published in the Lancet in 1994. PSK is also available as a nutritional supplement. For more information, see my write-up on PSK .