PC-SPES, a herbal preparation consisting of eight herbs, was being explored as
a potential treatment for patients who do not respond to traditional hormone
cancer therapy. Currently, limited treatment options exist for such patients,
who generally have a poor prognosis and median survival of about one year.
Approximately one third of patients who fail to respond to chemotherapy for
prostate cancer subsequently respond to PC-SPES.

The University of California at San Francisco, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer
Center, and Johns Hopkins University were conducting clinical research on the
use of PC-SPES for prostate cancer.

Commercially available since November 1996, PC-SPES is a proprietary
combination of eight herbs: Isatis indigotica, Glycyrrhiza uralensis, Panax
pseudoginseng, Ganoderma lucidum, Scutellaria baicalensis, Dedranthema
morifolium, Rabdosia rubescens, and Seronoa repens.

The herbs in PC-SPES were reported to stimulate the immune system and have anti-
tumor activity. PC-SPES also appeared to have estrogen-like activity in the
body. Estrogen has been used as a conventional treatment for prostate cancer to
kill cancer cells.

In a study conducted by the University of California at San Francisco and
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, PC-SPES therapy reduced prostate
specific antigen (PSA), a marker for prostate cancer, in 50% of patients with
hormone resistant prostate cancer. In addition, levels of an enzyme called
prostate acid phosphatase (PAP), commonly elevated in hormone resistant
prostate cancer, decreased and improvements on bone scans were noted.

(ON A SIDE NOTE- MY BROTHER'S CANCER DR. AT YALE, A STAR IN HIS FIELD, JUST DIED OF CANCER THIS WEEK AT AGE 47)