Abstract
Lentinan, a β-(1-3)-glucan with some β-(1-6)-gluco-pyranoside branchings, has been extracted and purified from Lentinus edodes a most popular edible mushroom in Japan. This substance has been shown to act as an immunostimulating agent through host defense mechanisms as reported by Chihara et al (1, 2). Lentinan exerts it’s antitumor activity on both syngeneic and spontaneous tumors. The cellular mechanisms of antitumor activity have been clarified by Hamuro et al (3), in that lentinan appears to stimulate host defense mechanisms to induce cytotoxic T cells, natural cytotoxicity and/or augmented macrophages against tumor cells. This suggests that lentinan may be effective for patients with malignant diseases. Based on the results of Phase I and II clinical trials conducted by Taguchi et al (4), the administration conditions for lentinan have been determined to be intravenous administration at doses of 0.5 to 1.0 mg/person/day once or twice a week in combination with chemotherapeutic agents for patients with advanced or recurrent cancer. In order to clarify the clinical efficacy of lentinan administration a Phase III randomized control trial has been conducted on patients with advanced or recurrent gastric or colorectal cancer.
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