Insulation Potentiation Therapy (IPT) claims to enhance the effects of chemotherapy, allowing doctors to treat cancer patients in a gentler fashion with smaller doses of chemotherapy drugs. Many cancer patients assert they have been helped by IPT, but as of 2011, there is no clinical evident that IPT is effective -- and the procedure can have dangerous side effects.
History
Insulin was first extracted from tissues in the early 1920s and immediately applied to the previously-untreatable illness of diabetes. It was seen as a new wonder drug and used to treat everything from malnutrition to schizophrenia. In the late 1920s, Donato Perez Garcia, M.D. started to inject himself with insulin to study its effects. He theorized that insulin could enhance the body's ability to absorb drugs, and thus, insulation potentiation therapy was born.
Theory
According to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, insulin appears to increase a cell's ability to absorb chemicals. In many forms of cancer, cancerous cells may be more sensitive to insulin-like growth factor (IGF) so insulin would affect the permeability of cancer cells more than healthy cells. IPT supporters claim these mechanisms allow chemotherapy drugs to be more effective when administered with insulin injections.
Evidence
The American Cancer Society states that despite claims that IPT's benefits are well-researched, there has been only one study published. The results of this study were printed in "Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology" in 2003. Researchers claimed that IPT showed significant effect on metastatic breast cancer. However, the American Cancer Society notes the study did not follow these women long enough to see if they experienced long-term improvement in their cancers. In reality, evidence supporting IPT comes from anecdotal rather than clinical evidence.
Side Effects
Not only has IPT not been shown to be effective, but the insulin injections themselves can have serious side effects. Insulin lowers blood sugar and the American Cancer Society notes that this can lead to symptoms from weakness and shakiness to brain damage and death. These symptoms are worse for patients already undergoing diabetes treatment or taking sulfa drugs, and can be masked by beta blockers. Finally, some patients have a severe allergic reaction to insulin.
Potential
The biochemical effects of insulin may help with the body's ability to absorb chemotherapy or other drugs, but as it stands, the evidence is inconclusive. Further study is needed to measure IPT's safety and efficacy. At the time of publication, the American Cancer Society recommends against the treatment. Patients should not avoid or postpone traditional cancer treatments to undergo IPT.
References
- American Cancer Society; Insulin Potentiation Therapy; Nov. 1, 2008
- IPTQ.com
- Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Insulation Potentiation Therapy; May 9, 2011
- "Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology "; Insulin-Induced Enhancement of Antitumoral Response to Methotrexate in Breast Cancer Patients; Eduardo Lasalvia-Prisco, et al; 2003
