Dr. Karen Becker: Researchers Shocked by Mushroom Study Results.
In a study conducted at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine and published recently in an open-access article in the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, dogs with hemangiosarcoma — an aggressive, malignant cancer that develops in the cells of blood vessels — were given a compound derived from a type of mushroom, Coriolus versicolor.
According to researchers, the patients given this compound had the longest survival times ever reported for dogs with this form of cancer. This is certainly promising news, as this mushroom compound could offer an alternative to chemotherapy or a complementary treatment to traditional cancer therapies for dogs and people.
Coriolus versicolor, which goes by a variety of names including Trametes versicolor, Polyporus versicolor and the Yunzhi mushroom, is a common mushroom found throughout the world. “Versicolor” means “of several colors.” This mushroom is also commonly referred to as turkey tail because it looks a bit like the tail of a wild turkey.
