EBC-46

EBC-46 was discovered in 2004 by EcoBiotics as an extract from the seeds of the blushwood tree, Fontaniea Picrosperma. This tree is only found in the Atherton Tablelands, far north in Queensland's tropical rain forest.The team discovered EBC-46 after observing marsupials spitting out the fruit, because of apparent inflammatory properties the fruit has.

EBC-46 is being developed by QBiotics, a subsidiary of EcoBiotics, and its use as cancer treatment is patent protected.

This major news sites begin reporting about EBC-46 the first week of October 2014 after 300 trials had been completed in cats, dogs, horses and even Tasmanian devils. The research team seems to think that EBC-46 shrinks the blood capillaries around the tumor and cuts off blood supply to the tumor. The starved tumor bruises and dies rapidly, after which the immune system cleans up the rest of the tumor, leaving behind a scar. Several news articles report a "75 per cent ablation rate", which means I took to mean 3/4 of the tumor is gone after treatment leaving behind a small scar.

Ablation is used to mean removal of small tumors (no more than 3 inches across) by freezing or burning it off, as described in the link(s) below.

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/interventional-radiology/procedures/tumor/
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/livercancer/detailedguide/liver-cancer-treating-tumor-ablation

I think some news articles seem to mistake that line as meaning a 70% success rate. Although the actual success rates are not displayed (commercial privacy, maybe?), the way this QBiotic webpage phrases its success, this sounds to me like the research team is having a phenomenal success rate in treating pet tumors. However, this is only in tumor sites that can be accessed by "direct injection or topical application", and also if the tumor has not metastasized.

https://qbiotics.com/index.php/vet-pipeline/ebc-46-animals

Also, there are 2 other youtube videos on EBC-46 made by people who don't seem to understand that EBC-46 can treat more than just head, shoulders and breast. Also, these two youtube videos below use a creepy female computer generated voice to read out a script, and it's basically reading off either the abc news Australia article or the Guardian article. I will not make the two creepy youtube links playable in the blog, but you can visit them if you like, I'm fairly certain whoever made those two links was sleep deprived and probably wanted to emphasize that making your own EBC-46 is very expensive and difficult.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNdBd45lSBM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPu-6K0sZgI


So to reiterate, what I understand from the FAQ site and the more trustworthy news sites goes like this;

1) The blushwood tree, Fontaniea is grown on a farm. Wild Fontaniea is not harvested in commercial quantities.
2) An extract is made from the seeds inside the fruit, and goes through an isolation process to obtain pure ECB-46.
3) ECB-46 is injected into a tumor.
4) The tumor turns purple after about 20 minutes, and shrinks gradually.
5) After several days, the tumor is gone, does not return and a small scar is left behind.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevendelco/2015/06/01/are-some-of-the-best-cancer-pharmaceuticals-hiding-out-in-the-rainforests/#49778117c69e

Interestingly enough the Forbes article mentions the three other people not mentioned in the other news sites: the CEO of QBiotics, the Co-Founder of Eco-Biotics as well as the chief scientists, crediting them for discovering ECB-46.

Anyway, the current lead researcher is Dr. Glen Boyle, who said that EBC-46 is only being tested on tumors with access by direct injection or topical application. Also, Dr. Glen Boyle noted there is no evidence to show EBC-46 might work on metastatic cancers.
This next paragraph from the PBS nova next caught my eye:


Dr. Glen Boyle, being interviewed by Melissa Davey for The Guardian:

“In preclinical trials we injected it into our models and within five minutes, you see a purpling of the area that looks like a bruise,” Boyle, from the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute said.
“About 24 hours later, the tumour area goes black, a couple of days later you see a scab, and at around the 1.5 week mark, the scab falls off, leaving clean skin with no tumour there. The speed certainly surprised me.”

According to this video on youtube released by Dr. Catherine Barnett, human Phase I/II trials were to begin November 2014 at Princess Alexandra Hospital. (Pardon the grotesque video showing a open tumor that the video used as a HNSCC case example, I like to think I've a pretty strong stomach but I felt my insides wilt a little on seeing the thumbnail of the video, the rest of the video won't bother you nearly as much)


https://youtu.be/uAuAth-Louw?t=3m14s

Interestingly, the youtube video was published on on August 2014, while major news sites started publicizing on October 2014, a month before the human trials were to begin.

Sources:


http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0108887

https://www.qbiotics.com/index.php/faq

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBC-46

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/rare-australian-berries-might-contain-cancer-treatment/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2785903/A-cancer-fighting-berry-tree-ONLY-grows-far-North-Queensland-human-trials-approved.html

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-07/queensland-scientists-discover-cancer-fighting-berry/5796106

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2014/s4102196.htm