CHAPTER 7 THE ROLE OF POLYSACCHARIDES DERIVED FROM MEDICINAL MUSHROOMS IN CANCER Synopsis This Chapter sets out the current information on the use of various mushroom polysaccharides in cancer treatment. Many human cancer cell-lines have been studied and in some cases direct cytotoxic effects have been demonstrated. Many of the mushroom polysaccharide compounds have proceeded through to Phases I, II and III clinical trials and several are used extensively in Asia to treat various cancer. It is anticipated that such proprietary mushroom compounds will mainly be used as complementary or adjunctive therapies to be used in adition to mainstream care. INTRODUCTION It has been generally recognised that in the treatment of cancer surgery with or without radiotherapy remains the modus operandi for most cancer cures. Radiotherapy is used quite successfully for many forms of cancer while chemotherapy has become an integral part of a multi-disciplinary treatment of cancers and has served also as a palliative measure in cases of advanced cancer. However, in almost all cases, a major cause of treatment failure has been the development of distant metastases. While surgery and radiotherapy are all means of eradicating loco-regional disease they are of little value with distant metastases. For such distant metastases chemotherapy is the recommended approach but effectiveness is limited by toxic side-effects at high doses. Furthermore, within the holistic approach of clinical cancer therapy there is now increasing emphasis being given to patient quality of life (QOL) following these above classical treatments.