This prescription drug is used off-label in low doses to treat people with cancer, with notable but very preliminary successes in cases where the cancers were difficult-to-treat or quite advanced.
How do experts use low-dose naltrexone?
Integrative experts provide recommendations for LDN in treating people with cancer. Learn more about the approaches and meanings of recommendations: Integrative Oncology Programs and Expert Guidelines ›
Published protocols, programs, and approaches
LDN is used in programs, approaches, and protocolsa package of therapies combining and preferably integrating various therapies and practices into a cohesive design for care from these integrative oncologists, drawing from both scientific research and observations from years or even decades of treating people with cancer.
Keith Block, MD
Block KI. Life over Cancer: The Block Center Program for Integrative Cancer Care. New York: Bantam Dell. 2009.
The integrative Block Program has recommendations to people who are at different places along the cancer continuum:
- Those who’ve been recently diagnosed
- Those in treatment
- Those who’ve concluded treatment and need to remain vigilant to prevent recurrence
Use of low-dose naltrexone to control growth when other treatment isn’t working
Neil McKinney, BSc, ND
McKinney N. Naturopathic Oncology, 3rd Edition. Victoria, BC, Canada: Liaison Press. 2016.
This book includes descriptions and uses of many natural and complementary protocols for cancer in general and for specific cancers. It also includes information on integrative support during conventional cancer treatment.
Uses of low-dose naltrexone:
- Bladder cancer
- Brain/nerve cancer
- Breast cancer
- Cervical cancer
- Esophageal cancer
- Gallbladder cancer
- Head and neck cancer
- Kidney cancer
- Leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome
- Liver cancer
- Lung cancer
- Lymphoma
- Melanoma
- Multiple myeloma
- Ovarian cancer
- Pancreatic cancer
- Prostate cancer
- Sarcoma
- Skin cancer
- Stomach cancer
- Thyroid cancer
- Uterine cancer
- Vulvar cancer
- Relief from myalgia due to drugs such as aromatase inhibitors
Used in the Bastyr University Integrative Oncology Research Center protocol for stage 4 breast cancer1McKinney N. Naturopathic Oncology, 3rd Edition. Victoria, BC, Canada: Liaison Press. 2016. p. 316.
Gurdev Parmar, ND, FABNO, and Tina Kaczor, ND, FABNO
Parmar G, Kaczor T. Textbook of Naturopathic Oncology: A Desktop Guide of Integrative Cancer Care. 1st edition. Medicatrix Holdings Ltd. 2020.
This book provides information on the treatment of 24 cancers, plus the most effective treatments of the most common symptoms affecting cancer patients while they undergo chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or surgery.
Uses of low-dose naltrexone:
- Hodgkin’s and non Hodgkin’s lymphoma
- Pancreatic cancer
Dosing
Dosage has not been standardized for use in cancer care, but recommendations are available from these sources.
General information about dosing
Find general dosing guidelines regarding natural products and supplements in Dosing Guidelines ›
Expert commentary
In Life Over Cancer, integrative physician and CancerChoices advisor Keith Block, MD, suggests LDN as an off-label drug that could be particularly valuable during the growth-control phase of cancer “by activating Th1 cancer-fighting immune cells and apoptosis of cancer cells while binding opiate receptors that can stimulate cell replication.”2Block KI. Life over Cancer: The Block Center Program for Integrative Cancer Treatment. New York: Bantam Dell. 2009.
Dan Rubin, ND, April 21, 2022: To my knowledge and experience hyperthyroidism only arises in people that are on thyroid replacement therapy for autoimmune thyroid disease which may reverse in part or in whole because of the use of naltrexone. This means that if and when naltrexone use corrects the thyroid malady, the dose of prescription thyroid will need to be monitored by the physician.
CancerChoices advisor Brian Bouch, MD, discusses the history and use of low-dose naltrexone for cancer care.
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