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Maitake, or hen of the woods, is an edible mushroom whose extracts are sold to boost the immune system against cancer. Small studies show changes in immune markers, but no trial has shown that it shrinks cancer or helps people live longer. It can lower blood sugar, and in one person taking warfarin it made the blood slower to clot.
Maitake (Grifola frondosa) is eaten widely in Asia and its beta-glucan extracts are sold to enhance immune function and, by some sellers, to treat cancer. Memorial Sloan Kettering's About Herbs summary describes antitumour, blood-cell-sparing and immune effects in laboratory and mouse studies, and calls the clinical data limited: a small case series with some reported regressions, and small trials showing immune changes in postmenopausal women with breast cancer, better neutrophil and monocyte function in myelodysplastic syndrome, and fewer chemoradiotherapy side effects in advanced laryngeal and pharyngeal cancer. None of these measured survival or response against a control in an adequately sized trial. MSK lists asymptomatic eosinophilia as a reported reaction, a case report of a raised INR with warfarin, and additive blood-sugar lowering with diabetes medicines. Eating the mushroom as food is generally safe.
Beta-glucans activate macrophages, natural killer cells and dendritic cells through receptors such as Dectin-1 in laboratory models; whether that translates into control of a human cancer has not been shown.
Query for this technology: (TITLE:"Maitake mushroom extracts" OR ABSTRACT:"Maitake mushroom extracts") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about Maitake mushroom extracts, not a curated reading list.
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Shares Medicinal mushrooms: reishi, turkey tail, shiitake and others, Evidence-based integrative oncology, Misinformation and unproven therapies and the tags complementary, supportive-care.
Shares Dietary supplements during cancer treatment: interactions and harms, Evidence-based integrative oncology, Misinformation and unproven therapies and the tags complementary, supportive-care.
Shares Dietary supplements during cancer treatment: interactions and harms, Evidence-based integrative oncology, Misinformation and unproven therapies and the tags complementary, supportive-care.
Shares Dietary supplements during cancer treatment: interactions and harms, Evidence-based integrative oncology, Misinformation and unproven therapies and the tags complementary, supportive-care.
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