Shark has been living on the earth for more than 40 billion years, and as a very old creature, it’s famous for its brutal. Do you know that shark can not only be good for the oceanic ecological balance but can also be beneficial for humans. In recent years，the shark cartilage has given greatness to humans. Scientists found that sharks have high-resistance capability, rarely get sick and even not afraid of infection. What's surprising is even if you put a shark into water that contains numerous carcinogens, or feed it with carcinogens, it will still remain healthy. It is speculated that there’s something inside a shark that have antitumor mechanism or a strong immune system that can For that reason, some countries did a lot of research, and then found out that there’s something to do with the shark cartilage. The protein in shark cartilage has powerful inhibition effects to Neovascularization, which means if we want to prevent angiogenesis that could prevent cancer.
The anticancer actions of shark cartilage can be divided into three parts: cancer cell cytotoxicity, stimulates the immune system and anti-angiogenesis. How the first two works is still unknown, but there are a lot of reports about anti-angiogenesis. Because cancer cells can’t get enough blood to keep alive, they can’t grow.
Shark cartilage doesn’t have any vascular system; the cartilage has active ingredients like four kinds of biologically active proteins, chondroitin sulfate and polysaccharide etc. The growth and metastasis of malignancy, rely on angiogenesis, so it can get nutrient. If the malignancy’s vasoganglion has been destroyed, then the growth and metastasis of malignancy will be stopped.
According to this, scientist made supplements like shark cartilage, and has been widely used in clinic and can bring results. In 1992, a doctor from Cuba gave shark cartilage products to 29 terminal-cancer patients, and 14 of them were cured. An American doctor gave shark cartilage products to 110 terminal-cancer patients, and just after a few weeks, most of the patients’ tumors shrink, and 15 of them don’t have tumors any more. In 1994, FDA had approved shark cartilage products to be used in preventing cancer. Therefore, shark cartilage has become a hot spot in the market and affects the whole world.
鲨鱼在地球上生存了约4亿万年之久，是很古老的生物，一向以凶残著称。鲨鱼除了有利海洋生态平衡，对人类也大有益处。近年来，鲨鱼软骨又给癌症病人带来了福音。科学家发现，鲨鱼抗病能力很强，很少生病，也不怕感染，更令人惊奇的是，把鲨鱼放养在含有大量致癌物质的水环境里，或喂养高强度致癌物质，或直接向其体内接种病原菌和癌细胞，它都能安然无恙。人们据此推测，鲨鱼体内有着某种抗癌机制或拥有有效抵抗病菌入侵的免疫系统。为此，许多国家作了大量研究， 结果发现这与鲨鱼周身的软骨有关系。鯊魚體内的軟骨中的蛋白質含有具有血管新生抑制作用的物質，而血管新生與惡性腫瘤的發展和轉移有密切的聯係。
鯊魚軟骨的抗癌作用機理主要有三個，即對癌細胞的毒性﹑激活免疫系統和抗血管新生。前兩個作用機理目前還不明瞭，但是關於抗血管新生作用機理的研究報告有很多。由於血管新生被抑制，癌細胞不能得到充分的“營養來源”，所以癌細胞就不能成長。目前，人們已經發現鯊魚軟骨中的蛋白質中含有多種抗血管新生物質。
鲨鱼软骨无血管系统，软骨含有4种复杂的活性蛋白和硫酸软骨素及动多糖等有效成分，即“防止肿瘤新生血管生长因子”。肿瘤生长和转移，依赖于新生血管的增生，以提供养分，若肿瘤的血管网被抑制破坏，那么肿瘤的生长和发展就会受阻。而“因子”恰好能阻止肿瘤新生血管网络的增成，继而切断癌细胞的养分及新陈代谢。
根据这个原理，科学家制成了鲨鱼软骨制品，在临床上应用并取得效果。1992年，古巴医生给29位晚期癌症患者服用鲨鱼软骨制品，结果有14人恢复健康；美国医生对110名癌症晚期患者使用鲨鱼软骨制品进行治疗，几周后，所有患者的肿瘤都有明显萎缩，其中15人肿瘤完全消。1994年，美国食品与药品管理局（FDA）正式批准用鲨鱼软骨制品防治癌症。于是，鲨鱼软骨制品成了保健品市场上的热点，影响波及全世界。
除抗癌效果外，鯊魚軟骨也被廣泛應用於改善痛風、關節炎、骨刺、坐骨神經痛、脊椎疼痛，以及抗炎症、全面提高免疫力等。
