Stinging Cancer with Bee Venom

Bee Venom Stimulates the Innate Immune System to Resolve Cancer

Pollination - Louise Docker

The strangely lower incidence of lung cancer in beekeepers has long been known but never adequately explained. Cancer is intimately involved with our Innate Immune System - the part of the immune system that isn’t targeted by vaccinations. The innate immune system has to do with T cells and natural immunity, and this is constantly at work putting out the small brushfires of cancer that flare up daily in everyone. Bee venom soups up our immune system, much like a turbo charger soups up a race car.

Following a recent and painful yellow jacket attack, I did some digging in PubMed and was amazed at bee venom’s proven benefits. The use of bee venom has proven remarkably effective for a variety of diseases ranging from arthritis to pain to dementia.

Bee venom in general and melittin specifically is anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, anti-parasitic, anti-viral, anti-rheumatic, anti-cancer, anti-depressant, and neuroprotective. It has beneficial activity against Parkinsonism, Alzheimer’s Disease, and ALS.

Bee, wasp, and yellow jacket venom are similar as you might expect. This venom contains a mixture of peptides, enzymes, and proteins including the main component, melittin, the one responsible for the pain of the sting and paradoxically most of the benefits.

Let us begin with a case of advanced liposarcoma successfully resolved following treatment with bee venom.

A middle-aged man developed a small fatty tumor on his chest in 2000 which was easily removed. Unfortunately, the tumor recurred in 2004 prompting another excision also without a biopsy. Within a month, another left chest wall tumor rapidly formed and reached the dimensions of 4 by 5 cm - the size of a small apple.

For the third time, the patient was taken back to surgery and this time biopsy revealed a pleiomorphic liposarcoma with positive surgical margins indicative of tumor spread.

He was treated with nine rounds of chemotherapy - including pirarubicin, vindesine, cyclophosphamide, dacarbazine, epirubucin and radiation of 30 Gy. He was fine for nine years until the tumor recurred in 2014 - a 5 cm mass involving the chest wall - prompting repeat surgery, two more rounds of chemotherapy - epirubicin and ifosfamide and high-dose radiation of 50Gy.

The incision cracked, failed to heal, and he required further surgery and a muscle flap. After further spread, he underwent a 5th rib partial resection. A de-differentiated liposarcoma was seen on biopsy. Five years later he began experiencing level 6/10 left chest wall pain with severely affected sleep.

He was admitted to the Oncology Service, and a PET scan in April 2019 revealed a huge lobulated mass invading the pericardium, diaphragm, and interior of the left lung. The radiologist warned that further radiation therapy could be fatal. The thoracic surgeon felt the tumor was so large - involving lung, pericardium, and diaphragm - that it was not operable.

Following this, and with nothing to lose, bee sting therapy - apitherapy - was commenced. After a single bee sting, his pain dropped to a level of 1/10 and he was able to sleep through the night.

Gradually the bee stings were increased to 18 per session and combined with Apatinib, however the Apatinib had to be stopped due to severe side effects. Accordingly, the bee sting therapy was adjusted upwards to 50 per session up to three times per week.

Following some 4 months of apitherapy, a repeat PET scan revealed shrinkage of the tumor from 10.5 x 5.4 x 7.2 cm to 8 x 5 x 3 cm. At that point, the tumor became operable, and the patient underwent a complete resection in September 2019.

Following recovery from the surgery, the patient was exhausted, mentally and physically from the effects of battling the cancer for some 20 years. At his request, all treatment was stopped. He was re-evaluated every 4 months, and at his 16-month follow-up

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