Is the venom of Rhopalurus junceus Cuba's miracle drug?

The dark morph of Cubas blue scorpion, Rhopalurus junceus. Photo: Roland Teruel (C).

I guess a lot of you have heard about the alleged anti-cancer abilities of the Cuaban buthid Rhopalurus junecus (Herbst, 1800). Miami New Times journalist Jean Friedman-Rudokvsky has traveled to Cuba and looked into the history of Cuba's miracle drug against cancer.

This is an interesting article worth reading. The article doesn't claim that the drug made from the venom of the "Blue scorpion" does cure cancer, but it presents several interesting cases making you wonder if there is something in the drug having a positive effect in some cancer cases.

Personally, I'm a skeptic that want research and scientific proof before believing that something is true (especially in relation to health and medicine). But at the same time I know that many medicines today originally came from plants and animals and that traditional medicine has been around since the dawn of man. So I will not rule out that there might be something in the venom of Rhopalurus junecus that can have anti-cancer abilities, but hopefully future research will let us learn more about this.

Read the article and make up your own mind.

Reference:
Friedman-Rudovsky J. Blue scorpion venom: Cuba's miracle drug. Miami New Times; 2013 [cited 2013 April 17]. Available from: http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2013-04-18/news/blue-scorpion-escozul-cancer-treatment-cuba/full/. [Free full text]