Researcher found that a mushroom that has been used since centuries ago in the traditional Chinese medicine can boost the effect of an anticancer drug. The mushroom is called Phellinus linteus and doctors used it in combination with the doxorubicin drug in the laboratory against cancerous cells. The effect of the two ingredients was more powerful against prostate cancer as compared with the effect of the drug solely.

The expert team that carried out the study was formed of scholars from the Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts. They added doses extracted from the mushroom to a smaller than usual used amount of the doxorubicin drug.

The results showed that the drug mixed with the mushroom extract worked as efficiently as a larger amount of the drug would work against the cancerous cells. The good news is that the natural extract does not have side effects upon the health and does not destroy healthy cells in the body, like the drug alone does.

"This species of mushroom has been reported to have some degree of activity in cancer patients. Our aim was to study what effect, if any, extracts of Phellinus linteus have, but we also need to know precisely how it produces these effects," stated Dr Chang-Yan Chen, lead researcher of the study.

What makes the mushroom so beneficial against prostate tumor is still unknown by scientists, therefore the next step would be to track down the miraculous ingredient that could cut in half the damaging effects chemotherapy has on the health of people with severe illnesses. "Only when we have all this information we will be able to make full, safe and effective use of these mushroom extracts in people," Dr Chang-Yan Chen added.

However, Dr Richard Sullivan, director of clinical programs at the UK Cancer Research is still skeptical about the promising effect of the Phellinus linteus extract. He stresses that rigorous scientific research is needed before knowing for sure what the consequences of the mushroom ingredient would be upon our health.

"Many important drugs have been developed from natural sources, including the anticancer drug Taxol, derived from yew trees. Fungi contributed in the development of penicillin and the migraine drug ergotamine. But compounds from natural products cannot be assumed to be safe. Rigorous scientific studies are required to understand the full range of effects they produce. There was evidence that extracts of Phellinus linteus slowed tumor progression. Now they have shown promise in combination with one type of chemotherapy drug, but it is still too early to say whether it will be successful in the long run," Dr. Sullivan added.