Abstracto

Maggot Therapy and Cancer

Nwaeburu CC* and Alishlash O

Due to the rising prevalence of non-healing wounds, therapists all over the world have rediscovered the benefits of maggot therapy. Maggot debridement therapy was used historically for necrotic tissue healing but its use diminished with early decades of antibiotic discovery. Today, several persons live with ailments that increase their susceptibility to wounds and/ or worsen their wound healing such as cancers and/ or ulcerating tumors. In spite of obvious correlations of maggot’s secretions to many mechanisms that are important in tumor growth and metastasis such as angiogenesis,inflammation and cell migration, till this moment, there are no well-knownstudies of maggot secretions biology and biochemistry, mechanisms of actions and its probable anticancer effect. We therefore think that more efforts should be done towards a better understanding of the role of medicinal maggots in cancer therapy. In this review examines the biology of maggot therapy, its preparation and application for wound care, the molecular mechanisms linking maggot therapy to cancer, and finally discusses all published cases of ulcerating tumors and cancers managed with maggot therapy till date.