En excerpt from the book :
"ALTERNATIVES
IN CANCER THERAPY"
by Ross, R.Ph. Pelton, Lee Overholser
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20
Urea
As ODD AS it may seem to "civilized" people, a number of older cultures use urine for healing. Urine has been applied topically to heal skin problems and taken orally for internal diseases. Some cultures even promote drinking urine on a regular basis as a preventive measure to maintain good health.
Background
In 1954 a Greek physician, Dr. Evangelos D. Danopoulos, reported discovering that urine had anticancer properties. After years of research, he identified urea as the active anticancer agent in urine. Urea is the end product of protein metabolism and is the main substance excreted in the urine.
In 1974 Dr. Danopoulos published a paper on the use of urea in the treatment of basal cell and squamous cell skin cancers. (1) Initially he injected 2 to 6 ml of a 10-percent urea solution around the tumor site every other day. After about two years of experimentation he discovered that applying sterilized urea powder directly to the surface of ulcerating tumors, following the injections, increased the beneficial effects.
He also experimented with injecting 2 to 3 ml of a 50-percent urea solution directly into the mass of large, fast-growing tumors, and had encouraging results. However, he reported that injections around the tumor site remained the most effective form of treatment. (1)
Dr. Danopoulos also reported the results of oral administration of urea in the treatment of patients with liver cancer. (4) In this study eighteen patients (eight with primary tumors and ten with metastatic liver tumors) were given 2 to 2.5 gm of urea four to six times daily. Patients with more than 30 percent to 35 percent of their liver involved were not allowed to participate. With this treatment, the patients had an average survival of 26.5 months, five times greater than usually expected.
In a follow-up study, eleven patients with primary liver cancer and seventeen with metastasized liver cancer were treated with 10 to 15 gm of urea daily. Again, excellent results (25.6 months of average survival) were obtained. (2)
Further Research
The use of urea as a treatment for certain types of cancer is of interest because it is inexpensive, nontoxic, and virtually without side effects. Other researchers have begun to test urea and have found that it has cytokinetic and cytotoxic effects when tested in cell culture studies with a line of human cancer cells. (7)
A study in India reported up to a 75-percent reduction of inoperable cancer of the uterine cervix with the use of injections of 40-percent urea solution directly into the tumor along with a localized application of a 50-percent urea ointment. Sixty percent of these patients responded well, while only twenty-five percent had a minimal response. In the same study patients who had multiple secondary metastasis to the liver experienced significant symptomatic relief with orally administered urea. (6)
Mechanism of Action
The cellular surfaces of malignant tumor cells are known to contain large amounts ofglycoproteins and other large molecular surface-active agents. These surfactants on cancer cells have hy-drophobic (water-repelling) properties at nonpolar sites and hy-drophilic (water-attracting) properties at polar sites. This produces a structured water matrix surrounding cancer cells that is substantially different from that surrounding normal cells. Some researchers have theorized that this difference can account for some of the characteristics of malignant tumor growth. Apparently the structured water matrix produces a loss of the cellular contact inhibition that is associated with cancer. This means that cancer cells don't mind crowding together. It also enables cancer cells to excrete and absorb nutrients and other chemicals in an abnormal way. (5)
In 1977 researchers at the University of Illinois Medical Center showed that substances that are capable of disrupting the water matrix of malignant cells will exert anticancer effects. Their investigations of the activity of urea indicated that when urea is administered under proper conditions and in the appropriate concentrations, it disrupts the cellular water matrix and interferes with the processes necessary for continued uncontrolled cellular growth. (5)
The same group of researchers reported that daily injections of a 40-percent urea solution directly into tumor masses and into the area surrounding the growth were successful in regressing and eradicating well-established malignant melanomas in laboratory animals. It has also been shown that additive synergistic effects can be achieved against malignant tumors when urea is used concurrently with localized hyperthermia treatments. (5)
Oral Urea
Orally administered urea seems to be useful in the treatment of liver cancer, both for the primary liver malignancy and the me-tastases. When urea is taken orally, it reaches the liver directly from the intestines via the portal vein in a high enough concentration to have a significant therapeutic effect on the liver.
After passing through the liver, urea enters the bloodstream, and is quickly excreted by the kidneys into the urine. Dr. Danopoulos discovered that intravenously administered urea is ineffective, because it is diluted in the blood and excreted. Also, after an oral dose of urea passes through the liver, it reaches other organs in too low a concentration to have an anticancer effect. (3)
Clinical Studies
Dr. Danopoulos stresses that for urea to be effective in the treatment of liver cancer, no more than approximately one third of the liver can be affected by the cancer. Because urea exerts its influence in part through the healthy tissue surrounding the tumor, if there isn't enough healthy tissue left, the treatment will be much less effective. In more extensive liver tumors, urea treatment may prolong the life of the patient without reducing the tumor. Danopoulos also reports that small cancerous lesions of the liver can be cured within one to two years. With more extensive tumors, the treatment has to be continued for longer periods, even for life. (3)
According to Dr. Danopoulos, urea travels to the lungs after passing through the liver, so that small metastatic lesions of the lung (not larger than 10 mm) can also be effectively treated with oral urea. Urea can easily be injected or applied in powder form to external malignancies, and has been used in this way by Dr. Danopoulos to successfully treat skin and lip carcinomas.
Initially he injected a 10-percent urea solution around the tumor after local anesthesia. He now uses only powdered urea covered by an impermeable dressing after curettage (scraping) of the cancerous tissue. With this modification, he reports, "Our cure rate is as high as 96 percent, and we have treated some very advanced cases with excellent cosmetic results, since urea has also a healing promoting action." (1)
Dr. Danopoulos's medical specialty is cancer of the eye, and he reports using urea very effectively to treat malignancies of the eye. He has even cured extensive malignant melanomas of the face, and in several cases the eye of the patient was saved.
He has also had success treating malignant pleural effusions, by injecting a 10-percent sterile solution of urea directly into the pleural cavity. In cases of massive effusions, he reports injecting a concentrated 50-percent urea solution after evacuating a part of the fluid.
In localized, advanced tumors of the breast, he reports excellent results from injecting a 50-percent urea solution into the mass of the tumor every two to four days. Pain may necessitate the use of analgesics in this procedure. When these advanced cases already involve metastasis, treatment alleviates only the local discomfort.
He reports that urea is very useful in inoperable colon cancer;
20 ml of a 15-percent urea solution in water is applied six times daily through the colostomy with a syringe attached to a urethral catheter. He reports having achieved cures for primary colon cancer and also metastases in the small pelvis.
Finally, he reports successfully treating inoperable bladder cancer by introducing 100 to 150 ml of a 20-percent urea solution into the bladder via a urethral catheter up to eight times daily. The solution is left in the bladder for about thirty minutes by closing off the catheter with forceps.
Inoperable malignancies of other inner organs have been treated with urea only by introducing a catheter in the artery supplying blood to the diseased organ and by infusing continuously a 10-percent or 20-percent urea solution to the diseased organ.
In closing, Dr. Danopoulos states that perhaps the greatest value of urea in the treatment of malignancies is its prophylactic use after removal of the primary tumor. This prevents the development of metastases in the liver and the lungs, which might be invisible at the time of the surgery.
Side Effects and Toxicity
Treatment with urea is remarkably free of any serious side effects and toxicity. Patients taking urea solutions orally occasionally complain of minor gastric irritation and of a lingering bad taste in the mouth. Also, site injections of urea and topically applied powder occasionally cause a burning sensation.
In general, urea is a cheap, easily obtained compound that can be used in combination with most other types of cancer therapy, either traditional or alternative.
Dosage
The dosage of urea varies according to the route of administration. The usual oral dose is 12 to 15 gm daily, administered in divided doses. Sometimes this is administered in capsule form,
and sometimes it is dissolved in a flavored liquid and drunk. Danopoulos reports using dosage levels of up to 30 gm daily in several cases of very large liver tumors without side effects.
When urea is administered by injection, solutions of between 10-percent and 50-percent urea are normally used. Urea injections can produce a burning sensation, but injections of a local anesthetic can prevent this problem.