• CAM-summaries
  • Alternative medical systems
  • Biologically-based practices
    • Boswellia
    • Cannabinoids
    • Essiac
      • What is Essiac?
      • How well does Essiac work?
      • Is Essiac safe?
      • Essiac conclusions
    • Galavit
    • Laetrile
    • Shark cartilage
    • Ukrain
    • Black cohosh
  • Diet & nutrition
  • Energy medicine
  • Manipulative & body-based practices
  • Mind-body medicine
• CAM systematic reviews
• CAM and the law
• Prevalence of CAM use

What is Essiac?

Scientific name / brand name / common name

Essiac is usually administered as a tea. It has been used for over 70 years as a remedy for the adverse effects caused by conventional cancer treatments and supposedly for curing cancer itself. The name ‘Essiac’ was created by the Canadian nurse Renèe M. Caisse (‘Essiac’ is ‘Caisse’ spelled backwards) (refs 1,2,3). Other Essiac products are known as Flor-Essence® and PDQ®.

Ingredients

The four herbs contained in Essiac® are:

• Burdock root (Arctium lappa L.)
• Indian rhubarb root (Rheum palmatum L.)
• Sheepshead sorrel (Rumex acetosa L.)
• Slippery elm bark (Ulmus rubra Muhl.)

A modified Essiac product (Flor-Essence®) also includes the following four additional herbs:

• Watercress (Nasturtium officinale L.)
• Blessed thistle (Cnicus benedictus L.)
• Red clover (Trifolium pratense L.)
• Kelp (Fucus vesiculosus L.)

History / providers

According to Mrs Caisse, an English miner’s wife had received the recipe for Essiac from a Native Ojibwa Indian medicine man, and with this treatment had cured her breast cancer.

Mrs Caisse, who worked at the Bracebridge Cancer Clinic in Ontario, Canada from 1935 to 1941, treated cancer patients with Essiac herbal tea for 50 years. Caisse described her view of how Essiac affects the cancer process in an article in 1977. In the article she mentions the enlarging and hardening of the tumour after the first few treatments. Then she argued that the tumour would soften and, if the tumour was located near to an exterior route, the patient would discharge large amounts of pus and fleshy material. She believed that somehow Essiac would cause cancerous cells to retreat to the site of the original tumour where they would then shrink and vanish. In 1941, the Bracebridge Cancer Clinic was closed following a request by the Canadian authorities. Between 1959 and 1978 Caisse worked with Dr Charles Armao Brusch, director of the Brusch Medical Clinic in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the US, to modify the recipe and promote the use of Essiac. After carrying out some laboratory studies on mice, four further herbs were added to the recipe (see above). Caisse believed that the healing action and taste of Essiac would be improved by this modification. In 1977 Mrs Caisse sold the original Essiac recipe to Resperin Corporation Ltd of Toronto, Canada.

In 1982 the Resperin Corporation Ltd carried out some poorly designed trials in which physicians using the product were asked to submit case reports. Of 87 case reports received, 78 showed no benefit, four showed disease progression, two patients died, and others were treated concurrently with other therapies and could therefore not be included in the evaluation. The Canadian Department of National Health and Welfare terminated the tests, claiming that Resperin had conducted a poorly conceived and executed investigation. Health Canada concluded that the evidence was unconvincing and that there was no scientific evidence to support claims that Essiac could cure cancer (ref 4). However, under the Canadian Emergency Drug Release Programme, Essiac could be obtained on physician’s request. In 1995 the Essiac formula and its trademark was purchased from Resperine Corporation Ltd by David Dobbie. Thus, Essiac® Products Inc of New Brunswick became the manufacturer of Essiac®. Another Canadian product, Flor-Essence®, is manufactured in British Columbia, where Dr Charles Armao Brusch is involved in using the eight herbs of the modified Essiac formula.

Claims of efficacy / mechanisms of action / alleged indication

Dr Charles A Brusch (who was private physician to JF Kennedy) claimed that Essiac works by identifying toxins, gathering them, breaking them down and discharging them. He also suggested that in the (non-published) double-blinded study carried out by his institute, positive results were observed including pain cessation, increased appetite, improved sleep, well-being and energy, decreased depression, anxiety and fear and a decrease in nodular masses.

The explanations put forward for a mechanism of the therapy are not supported by good evidence, nor are they deemed a possible and sufficient explanation by current scientific standards.

Description of treatment method

The tea is usually taken 1-3 times before meals to minimise possible adverse effects such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. Initially, Caisse administered one of the herbs by injection and gave the others as tea. Nowadays, most products are in tea form but other products also exist in the form of drops, capsules, liquids and dry versions. The patient is supposed to boil the mixture and then drink the tea. The patient information also advises that no other treatment, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy, should be used while taking Essiac.

Prevalence of use

In 1982 when Canadian health officials conducted a retrospective review of Canadian patients treated with Essiac they found that about 150 physicians in Canada had at that stage reportedly requested supplies of Essiac on behalf of their cancer patients (ref 15). No figures for the current use of Essiac are available.

Legal issues

Essiac cannot be marketed as a drug because it has no licence. It is therefore usually sold as a nutritional supplement. In Canada, Essiac is currently unapproved for marketing and cannot be used in clinical trials without a valid preclinical new drug submission. However, the Canadian government allows Essiac to be manufactured and sold. Manufacturers are not allowed to make any medical claims, instead Essiac is promoted as a health-enhancing herbal tea.

Patients who wish to obtain Essiac must ask their physician to make a request to the Canadian Bureau of Human Prescription Drugs, which relays the order to the company and the company then ships it directly to the patient.

Costs

Essiac products vary in price from 4.15 Euros to hundreds of Euros per month for pre-made bottled blends. A pre-fabricated Essiac tea can range from 15.00 Euros to 24.00 Euros per ounce bottle. A higher price does not necessarily indicate higher quality of the product.

References

1. Kaegi E. Unconventional therapies for cancer: 1. Essiac. The Task Force on Alternative Therapies of the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Initiative. CMAJ 1998;158:897-902.

2. Boon H, Wong J. Botanical medicine and cancer: a review of the safety and efficacy. Expert Opin Pharmacother 2004;5:2485-501.

3. Tai J, Cheung S, Wong S, Lowe C. In vitro comparison of Essiac and Flor-Essence on human tumor cell lines. Oncol Rep 2004;11:471-6.

4. Oregon Medical Press Community Pages. http://www.ompress.com/community-faq-2.htm (accessed 15.07.05)

15. Henderson IWD. Director, Bureau of Human Prescription Drugs, Health Protection Branch, Health and Welfare Canada, Vanier, Ontario. Letter to J.W. Meakin. Executive Director, Ontario