A lot of interest on the MM listserv concerning cyclopamine. Rightly so, I might add. I am still poring over the scientific studies dealing with this topic, but some of the jargon is beyond my “translating” abilities. So this will take a bit of time (which I do not have, at present!). However, I did find out a couple of things, which may be of general interest.

1. cyclopamine is very expensive: one gram costs $ 5,000. I would be happy to provide more info to anyone interested (the company name, etc.). It appears that cyclopamine is sold in a powder (?) form, since there are warnings on how to store and handle it (wear gloves and a mask, etc.);

2. initially, the MM listserv member tested cyclopamine together with Revlimid and Dexamethasone (the latter: pulsing, every 4-5 weeks). He reports, though, that his M-spike had not decreased on the latter two drugs, which by then he had been taking for seven months. However, when he added a daily dose of 200-300 mg of cyclopamine (mixed in water) for ten days, his M-spike went from 0.9 to 0.4-0.5. His most recent self-administered cyclopamine test lasted 15 days, again at 200-300 mg/day. At that point he added lovastin, a cholesterol-lowering drug. The lovastin-cyclopamine combination, by the way, was tested in a research trial at Johns Hopkins (see the January 2007 Johns Hopkins press release: http://tinyurl.com/2m92jg). When administered together, they killed 63% of brain cancer cells; when used separately, that number went down to less than 20%. At any rate, on this combo, the list member’s M-spike went down to 0.3, and is now down to 0.2. Of course, as with curcumin (in my case), it is difficult to say whether or not it is the cyclopamine. My bet is on cyclopamine, though.

Anyway, the cyclopamine studies and the MM list member’s reports, are very promising. Yes, cyclopamine costs an arm and a leg, but taking out MM by its roots has always been my dream, and this may well be another (non toxic) step in the right direction.