Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) for Cancer



Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN)

Douglas G. Mitchell, Ph.D., D.Univ.
Jake Ames, M.D., H.M.D.

Keywords:  Low dose naltrexone for cancer; cancer active
naltrexone; low-dose Naltrexone, LDN, or ReVia.

LDN has been used, often in conjunction with alpha lipoic acid (ALA) and vitamin D, to considerable effect in ´holding´ certain cancers and increasing survival times significantly. In some cases there is even evidence of cancer cure. Its methodology is not 100% clear but Naltrexone is known to stimulate endorphin and opioid production in the body giving pain relief and enhancing immune function. This combination can have a significant healing effect. As with many of these off-patent old drugs now being repurposed for cancer use, it is cheap!

LDN is being used for pain relief, immune stimulation and cancer healing.

LDN has a growing number of fans across the Internet for the treatment of cancer. Specifically it works as an opioid and an anti-inflammatory and seems to block cancer progression. Claims that it can block cancer in people dubbed ‘terminal’, whose cancers have failed to respond to conventional treatment, abound. It is also claimed to have benefit with diseases from Rheumatoid Arthritis to Parkinson’s and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) to multiple sclerosis (MS).

It would also be useful, upfront, to explain endorphins and opioids briefly.  Endorphins (endogenous - you produce it yourself - morphine’s), are often called ´happy hormones´ typically produced after exercise and, particularly, yoga. They provide pain relief and a slight feeling of euphoria. They also have strong immuno-modulating properties and are thus valuable in the field of immunotherapy. Endorphins are opioid neuropeptides produced by the nervous system and the pituitary gland.

Opioids (substances with properties similar to opium) have morphine-like properties. You can stimulate opioid production through meditation or vigorous exercise (running).  Receptors for opiates have been found in many different types of immune cells.

Since these immunotherapy findings were made back in 1985, Dr. Ian Zagon and his team at Pennsylvania State Medical School have published over 300 papers. They have shown that LDN can up-rate the production of endorphins and increase the immune response in the body, particularly the production of Natural Killer cells. Endorphins have also shown a regulatory effect on the growth of cancer cells. Finally, LDN also acts directly to stimulate immune receptors called Toll-like receptors (TLRs). These can produce inflammatory compounds that would stimulate cancer cells. LDN also stops cancer cell division.

Naltrexone is an opiate antagonist - it blocks certain neurotransmitters and hormones in the body. It was licensed as a treatment for drug and alcohol addiction in 1985. It is given at doses between 50 and 300mg.

NCI Panel review on LDN
“The State of the Science of Alpha-Lipoic Acid (ALA) plus Low-Dose Naltrexone (LDN) for the Treatment of Cancer” was the subject for a panel of researchers and clinicians brought together on March 19, 2012 for presentations and a roundtable discussion.
The meeting was hosted by the NCI Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine (OCCAM) and the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP), both part of the NCI Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD).

Research on LDN

There were two NIH-supported clinical trials of naltrexone in cancer patients: One at the University of Minnesota for patients with breast cancer (1) (now terminated) and the other at Duke University with glioma patients (2).
But the meeting heard from two experts in the subject who had also conducted research already with patients. Namely Dr. Burton Berkson, an integrative medicine physician and Ph.D. in Biological Sciences, and Adjunct Professor at New Mexico State University and Dr. Renee N. Donahue, Research Fellow in the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology at the NCI Center for Cancer Research, about her pre-clinical research on the efficacy and proposed mechanism of action of LDN for the treatment of cancer.

Dr. Farah Zia, Director of OCCAM’s Case Review and Intramural Science Program, noted, “The cases being presented today by Dr. Berkson were submitted and given rigorous scientific evaluation under the NCI Best Case Series (BCS) protocol. The ultimate goal of the BCS is to identify those complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) interventions that have enough evidence to support NCI-initiated research.”
LDN costs just $15 a month.

Dr. Berkson, (Burt Berkson), originally used ALA to treat people with liver damage resulting from Hepatitis C or mushroom damage. In this meeting he presented 7 case studies of his own where he had used both Intravenous and oral ALA plus oral LDN along with an alkaline diet, supplements and lifestyle programs. He backed this with a number of studies from Europe.
Having learned about LDN from a patient he has been using it successfully to treat Rheumatoid Arthritis and cancer.
Dr. Donahue presented her research from her time as a Doctoral Graduate at Penn State College of Medicine, where she worked with Drs. Ian Zagon and Patricia McLaughlin. Their main focus was the role of a peptide called OGF in cancer and auto-immune disease, but they showed that low dose LDN blocked cell proliferation when used with OGF. However, she pointed out that high doses can cause cell proliferation with OGF blocker. LDN acts as an opioid receptor antagonist. LDN blocks DNA synthesis. Her work was done in vitro and with ‘nude’ mice, where the tumours had less blood vessels.

Work has taken place with pancreatic, ovarian and other cancers. And with chemotherapy drugs such as Taxol and Cisplatin. It is believed that no conflict occurs with such drugs and there may even be some enhancement of activity.
The NCI also heard from Dr. Gregory Plotnikoff, of Allina Hospitals System in Minneapolis, Minnesota who reported that his hospital has 36 advanced cancer patients using LDN with and without ALA  in cases where no more orthodox treatments were available to the patients. “The oncologists there are intrigued and anxious to do rigorous trials because they believe that there is something here that they have not seen from any other therapies,” he said.

Dr. Bernard Bihari originally used LDN with cancer patients as long ago as 1999. Although he claimed that he had treated over 450 patients, all of whom had completed available orthodox treatment and were now deemed ‘terminal’ he had seen a positive and long-term benefit in about two thirds of cases. Unfortunately, his paper work and record keeping did not pass rigorous scientific scrutiny as is used by Pharmaceutical companies.

Dr. Burt Berkson now practices with his son, Dr. Arthur Berkson at the New Mexico Integrative Medical Centre.

The non-cancer benefits of LDN

The opioid benefits of LDN - used with or without Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) - have been shown to have varying, but positive, effects with diseases such as MS, Rheumatoid Arthritis, IBS, Crohn’s and Parkinson’s. It seems to work poorly if vitamin D levels are low.

The Biochemical Action of LDN

In a 2013 presentation Dr Batter and Dr. Burton Berkson said that “Low dose Naltrexone and ALA was not a cure for cancer, but some people did very well on it for a considerable period of time. Some tumours stop progressing, while others go dormant and stop appearing on PET scans years after a terminal diagnosis by conventional oncologists”.

3.0 to 4.5 mg of Naltrexone was recommended at bedtime, and this causes endorphin/encephalin blockade, which is released as a flood in the morning after sleep. Cancer cells have encephalin receptors which block growth. This is how previous studies on OGF work. LDN also binds to an inflammatory protein TLR4 blocking inflammation and pain.

So what has happened to the two clinical trials?
In clinical trials naltrexone hydrochloride was used and the specification was that “Naltrexone should be taken with water or food, and it can be taken at any time of day. The actual breast cancer trial specified that ‘Naltrexone 50 mg will be taken once a day every day of a 28-day treatment course’. And the glioma trial used ‘4.5 mg by mouth before going to bed’.
LDN also goes by the brand name ReVia.
The levels provided in the breast cancer trial seem higher than normally specified. It was terminated in 2013 and these high levels may have been part of the reason:
1. “Naltrexone in Treating Women With Metastatic Breast Cancer That Did Not Respond to Hormone Therapy”: http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00379197?term=naltrexone+AND+cancer&rank=1
The glioma trial conforms to dose specifications and is ongoing:
2. “Low-Dose Naltrexone for Glioma Patients”: http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01303835?term=naltrexone+AND+cancer&rank=3
The latter is a placebo-controlled randomized trial.
Three Cancer centres using LDN successfully
Perhaps the most relevant research to people in the UK is that going on in St George´s Hospital, Tooting, where a team under Professor Angus Dalgleish has been both researching LDN and using it in real-life situations with various cancer patients. They have seen it stimulate the immune system, provide increased survival times and even become a cancer cure. Dr. Wai M. Liu, one of the team there, describes it as a ´fantastic immune system stimulator´. This allows LDN to be used along-side conventional cancer-cell killing agents.
And you don´t need to use the drug in high doses or continuously (perhaps the flaw in the research on breast cancer above).

In their work published in 2016 Journal of Oncology, the St. George´s team showed it was best to use the drug intermittently (on - off - on - off) at low doses to gain the biggest benefits.

Dr. Dalgleish talks of first using LDN with a melanoma patient and seeing her skin break out into white blotches within just 4 days. This was evidence that natural killer cells were attacking melanin a component in melanoma, something orthodox medicine had never achieved.
He has seen LDN work to stabilize liver cancers, prostate, breast and even glioma patients, in some cases in the long-term and even rendering some patients ´disease-free - that´s a cancer cure to you and me.

Similar results have been obtained by Dr. Akbar Khan of the Medicor Center in Toronto and Dr. Paul Anderson of AMSA Seattle. Both use it in treating cancer patients because it has proven to be one of the ´most impressive factors´ in stabilizing cancers in recent years. Both talk of it being an integrative treatment, a ´top treatment´ and stabilizing cancers frequently.

Naltrexone Protocol

This is a protocol for low dose naltrexone (LDN). You need prescriptions for Naltrexone

Instructions using compounded tablets

You need a compounding pharmacist.

The first prescription should be for 21 1.5 mg tablets, and 90 4.5 mg tablets. Subsequent prescriptions are only for 4.5 mg tablets. The pharmacist will prepare these tablets.

You always take LDN at bedtime.

Week 1: Take 1.5 mg tablets at bedtime.
Week 2: Take 2 1.5 mg tablets at bedtime.
Week 3 and thereafter: Take 4.5 mg tablets each day for life.

Instructions using 50 mg tablets

Naltrexone is mainly sold as 50 mg tablets. These are available off the shelf. If a compounding pharmacist is not available or too expensive, buy 50 mg tablets.

Crush the tablet with a mortar and pestle or use the back of a spoon on a plastic cutting board to crush the tablet into a very fine powder.

Put the Naltrexone powder into a glass jar with a screw-on lid.  The jar is big enough to hold 50 ml of water. 
Add 50 ml of distilled water or reversed osmosis water into the glass jar.  Your water should contain close to zero parts per million dissolved solids, (ppm).  Measure this with a total dissolved solutes (TDS) meter. The resulting mixture contains 1 mg/mL Naltrexone.

Shake the bottle thoroughly, and then use a 5 mL syringe to withdraw 1.5 mL (1.5 mg), 3.0 mL or 4.5 mL as required.

Make sure that you shake the closed jar real thoroughly each time you draw out the Naltrexone.

Side Effects

We usually do not see any side effects.  Rarely, patients may have some mild nausea at the 4.5 mg dosage. The patient then needs to decrease the dosage to 3.5 mg. This  usually works to eliminate any nausea.  A few weeks later, return to a 4.5 mg dose.  Patients now usually tolerate this dosage.

www.lowdosenaltrexone.org.

© 2017 Copyright Jake Ames & Douglas G. Mitchell All Rights Reserved