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Chelation Therapy & Cancer

Cancer researchers are always looking for new and more effective ways to combat the disease, so it is only natural that they would occasionally "borrow" treatments from other disciplines to test their effectiveness in fighting cancer. Chelation therapy is a form of treatment originally used to combat poisoning from heavy metals. While it is quite effective at doing that, it has yet to be shown effective at providing similar results in the struggle against cancer.

  1. Chelation Therapy Basics

    • You need to understand the basics of chelation therapy to grasp why it has proved ineffective at treating cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, chelation therapy is a treatment used to combat cases of lead poisoning. The therapy consists of the application of chemicals into the bloodstream to attach to heavy metal molecules, preventing them from bonding with the molecules normally present within the body, thus alleviating the possibility of toxicity resulting from overexposure to these metals. Regarding its proposed use as a cancer treatment, proponents argue that the therapy can act in removing cancer-causing environmental toxins from the bloodstream, as well as metals.

    Chelation Process and Evidence

    • Chelation therapy is performed by repeated intravenous injections over the course of several hours during the day, repeated at various times over a 10 to 12 week cycle. The primary chemical used in the process of chelation therapy is called EDTA, a manmade chemical first created in Germany during the 1930s. According to the ACS, there are zero studies that demonstrate chelation therapy's effectiveness in fighting cancer. While there have been a number of small studies attempting to prove its effectiveness, the result has either been minimal or not present to any significant degree. Despite its apparent current lack of effectiveness, studies on the topic are still ongoing, so the definitive answer on chelation therapy in fighting cancer will have to wait, but so far the situation does not appear promising.

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