Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Pancreatic cancer (PC) is among the deadliest malignancies. Kidney cancer (KC) is a common malignancy globally. Chemo- or radio-therapies are not very effective to control PC or KC, and overdoses often cause severe site reactions to the patients. As a result, novel treatment strategies with high efficacy but without toxic side effects are urgently desired. Secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG) belongs to plant lignans with potential anticancer activities, but clinical evidence is not available in PC or KC treatment. PATIENT CONCERNS: We report a rare case of an 83-year-old female patient with pancreatic and kidney occupying lesions that lacked the conditions to receive surgery or chemo- or radiotherapy. DIAGNOSIS: Pancreatic and kidney cancers. INTERVENTIONS: We gave dietary SDG to the patient as the only therapeutics. OUTCOMES: SDG effectively halted progression of both PC and KC. All clinical manifestations, including bad insomnia, loss of appetite, stomach symptoms, and skin itching over the whole body, all disappeared. The initial massive macroscopic hematuria became microscopic and infrequent, and other laboratory results also gradually returned to normal. Most of the cancer biomarkers, initially high such as CEA, CA199, CA724, CA125, came down rapidly, among which CA199 changed most radically. This patient has had progression-free survival of one year so far. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate the potent inhibitory effects of SDG on PC and KC of this patient and provide promising novel therapeutics for refractory malignant tumors.