Bee products and their role in cancer prevention and treatment

Objectives: Apitherapy, a method from the field of complementary and alternative medicine, promises better survival and even cure in cases of cancer.

Design: 129 books on apitherapy in English, French and German languages were analysed regarding the recommendations concerning cancer. The recommendations were compared to the results from clinical studies in the literature.

Results: Eighteen books recommend apitherapy for cancer prevention, thirty-nine for complementary cancer treatment and seventeen books considered apitherapy able to cure cancer. Pollen and Propolis were mainly recommended in order to stimulate the immune system and/or to improve cancer nutrition. Interestingly, few books provided specific information and no book provided adequate information in comparison to what is known from clinical studies on bee products. Data on relevant aspects of cancer treatment were not mentioned. This especially refers to data of bee products and radiotherapy, chemotherapy and radio-chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis, radiotherapy-induced skin toxicity, radiotherapy-induced xerostomia, cancer-related fatigue, febrile neutropenia, cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity, tyrosine kinase inhibitor-induced toxicity, side effects of antihormonal treatment and cancer-related wounds.

Conclusions: Apitherapeutic books are not good advisors regarding all aspects of cancer. However, the potential of some bee products justifies further trials, especially on cancer prevention and complementary treatment.

Keywords: Apitherapy; Bee product; Cancer; Honey; Prevention.