Oral urea - a panacea for liver cancer?

Urea for liver cancer

Eighteen patients with inoperable primary liver cancer and 21 with metastatic liver cancer were treated with oral urea over an 11-year period. The usual dose was 12-15 g/day in 6 divided doses per day, administered in syrup.

In two patients with large liver tumors, doses up to 30 g/day were given for up to 29 months. Most patients reported improvements after about two weeks, including weight gain, better performance, and increased well being.

Regression of liver enlargement was noted after about three months. The median survival time for the entire group was 20 months. The longest survival time was 93 months in a patient with hepatoma and 113 months in a patient with metastatic adenocarcinoma; the latter patient was still alive and in excellent condition. Seven patients were still alive at the time of this report. These survival times are much longer than those reported for similar patients treated with chemotherapy. Urea was well tolerated and did not cause side effects, even after years of treatment.

Comment: Urea is toxic to many different types of cancer cells. However, since the kidneys rapidly excrete urea, it is impossible to attain adequate concentrations in most body tissues after oral or intravenous administration. The only exception is the liver, because orally administered urea reaches the liver in high concentrations via the portal vein.

Because of its short half-life, urea must be administered frequently throughout the day. It has a bitter taste, which can be masked by dissolving it in fruit juice or tomato juice, or by dissolving the full daily dose in 1-2 quarts of water. People who are taking urea will often have extremely high blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels, which might be erroneously thought to indicate renal failure, if the doctor is unaware the patient is taking urea. Despite these high BUN levels, urea does not appear to have any deleterious effects on the kidneys.

Although urea is inexpensive, safe, and apparently effective against liver cancer, this treatment has received little attention among oncologists.

Danopoulos ED, Danopoulou IE. Eleven years experience of oral urea treatment in liver malignancies. Clin Oncology 1981;7:281-289.