Eating shiitake mushrooms helps fight cancer
MisleadingThe Claim
Shiitake is often promoted as an anti-cancer food, with the idea that adding the mushroom or a shiitake supplement to the diet helps the body fight tumors.
Origin
The belief comes from lentinan, a purified beta-glucan isolated from shiitake that is used as an injectable adjunct to chemotherapy in Japan and China.
What Science Says
The human evidence for cancer outcomes concerns injectable purified lentinan given with chemotherapy: a meta-analysis of 31 RCTs (2,729 gastric cancer patients) found better response rates (RR 1.48) with lentinan plus chemotherapy than chemotherapy alone. That is a pharmaceutical injection, not a food or oral supplement. Eating 5-10 g of dried shiitake daily for 4 weeks changed immune-cell markers in healthy young adults, but no trial has shown that dietary shiitake prevents or treats cancer.
Verdict
Misleading
Sources
- PMID:38100922 Systematic review and meta-analysis on the efficacy and safety of Injectable Lentinan combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of gastric cancer.
- PMID:25866155 Consuming Lentinula edodes (Shiitake) Mushrooms Daily Improves Human Immunity: A Randomized Dietary Intervention in Healthy Young Adults.