Efficacy and safety of standardized allergen-removed Rhus verniciflua Stokes extract in patients with advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer: a Korean single-center experience.

Background: Pancreatic cancer has the worst prognosis because of poor response to conventional therapy. We investigated the clinical feasibility of the standardized allergen-removed Rhus verniciflua Stokes (aRVS) extract as a potential therapeutic agent for advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Patients And Methods: From July 2006 to June 2010, patients with advanced or metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma were checked in our institution.

Rhus verniciflua stokes against advanced cancer: a perspective from the Korean Integrative Cancer Center.

Active anticancer molecules have been searched from natural products; many drugs were developed from either natural products or their derivatives following the conventional pharmaceutical paradigm of drug discovery. However, the advances in the knowledge of cancer biology have led to personalized medicine using molecular-targeted agents which create new paradigm. Clinical benefit is dependent on individual biomarker and overall survival is prolonged through cytostatic rather than cytotoxic effects to cancer cell.