EVIDENCE FOR SELECTIVE ANTI-TUMOR ACTIVITY OF THC PUBLISHED IN PRESTIGIOUS NEURO-ONCOLOGY JOURNAL SETH scientists discovered that THC, the major active compound in medical marijuana, can selectively kill human brain tumor cells in Petri dishes at non-toxic concentrations (see Featured Experiment). The work has been accepted for publication by the peer-reviewed medical journal, The Journal of Neuro-Oncology, and is expected to be in print later this year. A synthetic compound that mimics the activity of THC did not perform as well as the herbal compound in parallel tests. PIONEERING WORK ON HERBAL COMPOUND PUBLISHED IN THE JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL THERAPEUTICS AND ONCOLOGY Herbal products containing berberine (e.g., Golden Seal) are a popular choice among patients with the brain cancer glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) because of reports that this alkaloid compound is relatively nontoxic and can inhibit the growth of GBM tumors in rats. SETH Group scientists together with collaborators from the University of California San Francisco and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center discovered that a nontoxic dose of berberine renders GBM cells more sensitive to conventional radiation therapy (x-rays). Such radiosensitization was not observed in parallel experiments with primary human glial cultures. These data suggest that berberine could be integrated with postoperative radiotherapy to selectively promote residual GBM tumor cell death. Results of the study were recently published in the Journal of Experimental Therapeutics and Oncology, Volume 4, pages 137-143. SETH SCIENTISTS PUBLISH PRELIMINARY RESULTS SUPPORTING THE HEALING POWER OF SOUND Findings by SETH Group scientists were recently published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine indicating that sound waves below the level of hearing might help chemotherapy be more effective against cancer. The paper is titled "Possible Influence of Infrasound on Glioma Cell Response to Chemotherapy: A Pilot Study," and appears in the April 2004 issue of the peer-review scientific journal. The scientists found an apparent synergism when infrasound was combined with the chemotherapeutic agent 5-FU. If further research confirms a chemosensitizing property of infrasound, technology could be developed to selectively expose tumors to infrasound and increase the effectiveness of conventional therapies. SETH SCIENTISTS PUBLISH TESTS ON EXTERNAL QIGONG IN CELL CULTURE MODEL Practitioners of the alternative medical practice external Qigong generally claim the ability to emit or direct "healing energy" to treat patients. SETH Group scientists investigated the ability of experienced Qigong practitioners to affect the growth of cultured human cells in a series of studies, each following a rigorously designed protocol with randomization, blinding and controls for variability. The studies revealed no evidence that external Qigong treatment could reliably influence the cells. These results, recently published in the open access journal BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/4/5), suggest the need for more controlled and thorough investigation of external Qigong before scientific validation is claimed. ACCURACY OF BIOFIELD PERCEPTION QUESTIONED IN STUDIES BY SETH SCIENTISTS Energy Medicine practitioners often claim to be able to perceive an energetic field associated with the body and to be able to use this skill to diagnose illness and guide treatment strategies. SETH Group scientists teamed up with clinicians and Energy Medicine practitioners to design experiments testing the accuracy of this apparent perceptual ability. The experiments revealed that experienced Energy Medicine practitioners failed to make the distinction between a Petri dish containing cancer cells and one containing only water. Alternative explanations are discussed in the research article published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.