GC protein-derived macrophage-activating factor decreases α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase levels in advanced cancer patients

Abstract

α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase (nagalase) accumulates in the serum of cancer patients and its activity correlates with tumor burden, aggressiveness and clinical disease progression. The administration of GC protein-derived macrophage-activating factor (GcMAF) to cancer patients with elevated levels of nagalase has been associated with a decrease of serum nagalase activity and with significant clinical benefits. Here, we report the results of the administration of GcMAF to a heterogeneous cohort of patients with histologically diverse, advanced neoplasms, generally considered as “incurable” diseases. In most cases, GcMAF therapy was initiated at late stages of tumor progression. As this is an open-label, non-controlled, retrospective analysis, caution must be employed when establishing cause-effect relationships between the administration GcMAF and disease outcome. However, the response to GcMAF was generally robust and some trends emerged. All patients (n = 20) presented with elevated serum nagalase activity, well above normal values. All patients but one showed a significant decrease of serum nagalase activity upon weekly GcMAF injections. Decreased nagalase activity was associated with improved clinical conditions and no adverse side effects were reported. The observations reported here confirm and extend previous results and pave the way to further studies aimed at assessing the precise role and indications for GcMAF-based anticancer immunotherapy.

Clinical Observation of a Novel, Complementary, Immunotherapeutic Approach based on Ketogenic Diet, Chondroitin Sulfate, Vitamin D₃, Oleic Acid and a Fermented Milk and Colostrum Product

“…The patient repeated Nagalase determination about six months after having implemented the approach described above and the results, from the same European laboratory, showed a very significant decrease of the enzyme that approached the normal values (1.34 Units). These results seem to indicate that the immunotherapeutic approach adopted by the patient was effective in decreasing the level of serum Nagalase in a manner consistent with what previously reported for other types of cancer (Thyer et al, 2013).…”

Small cell lung cancer: Recruitment of macrophages by circulating tumor cells

“…55 MAFs are lymphokines involved in cytotoxicity of macrophages to tumors. 56,57 GcMAF directly inhibits proliferation, migration, and uPAR expression of prostate cancer cells. 58 However, the enzyme a-N-acetylgalactosaminidase which is produced by cancer cells deactivates this factor and facilitates spread of tumors.…”

Clinical Experience of Cancer Immunotherapy Integrated With Oleic Acid Complexed With De-Glycosylated Vitamin D Binding Protein

“…To our knowledge, this is the first example of actual images of tumor volume reduction following GcMAF immunotherapy. In effect, so far the effectiveness of immunotherapy of cancer with GcMAF has relied upon non-specific markers such as serum α-Nacetylgalactosaminidase levels (Yamamoto et al, 2008a;2008b;2008c;Thyer et al, 2013a) or anecdotic reports (Inui et al, 2013;Thyer et al, 2013b).…”

“…The potent immunotherapeutic effects of GcMAF in human tumors have been demonstrated since 2007 in a variety of cancers ranging from the most common breast and prostate cancers to the less frequent oligodendroglioma (Yamamoto et al, 2008a;2008b;2008c;Inui et al, 2013;Thyer et al, 2013a;2013b).…”