Purpose Of This Summary
This PDQ cancer information summary has current information about the use of nutrition and dietary supplements for reducing the risk of developing prostate cancer or for treating prostate cancer. It is meant to inform and help patients, families, and caregivers. It does not give formal guidelines or recommendations for making decisions about health care.
Soy: Questions And Answers
The soybean plant has been grown in Asia for food for hundreds of years. The soybean can be made into products, such as soy milk, miso, tofu, soy flour, and oil.
Soy foods contain phytochemicals that may have health benefits. Isoflavones are the most widely studied compounds in soy. Major isoflavones in the soybean include genistein, daidzein, and glycitein.
Isoflavones are phytoestrogens that attach to estrogen receptors found in prostate cancercells. Genistein may affect some processes inside prostate cancer cells that are involved in the growth and spread of cancer.
Soy may be eaten in food or taken in dietary supplements.
For information on laboratory and animal studies done using soy, see the Laboratory/Animal/Preclinical Studies section of the health professional version of Prostate Cancer, Nutrition, and Dietary Supplements.
Population studies and clinical trials have been done to find out if soy can prevent or treat prostate cancer. The results of these studies have been mixed. Some studies have shown a lower risk of prostate cancer or a change in prostate-specific antigen level, and others have not. The results may be mixed because of the small number of men who participated in the studies and the different types and doses of soy products given.
Combined population studies
Clinical trials
Pomegranate: Questions And Answers
The pomegranate is a fruit grown in Asia and in the Mediterranean, East Indies, Africa, and the United States. Pomegranate has been used as medicine for hundreds of years.
The pomegranate is made up of the following:
Pomegranate fruit and juice may be taken as food, drink, or a dietary supplement.
For information on laboratory and animal studies done using pomegranate, see the Laboratory/Animal/Preclinical Studies section of the health professional version of Prostate Cancer, Nutrition, and Dietary Supplements.
In a 2015 study, 183 men with recurrentprostate cancer were randomly assigned to receive either pomegranate juice, pomegranate extract, or a placebo. The study found no difference in how fast the prostate-specific antigen level rose between the 3 groups. There is not enough evidence to know whether pomegranate can prevent or treat prostate cancer.
No serious side effects have been reported from the use of pomegranate.
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Green Tea: Questions And Answers
In This Section
Tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant. The way tea leaves are processed determines whether green tea, black tea, or oolong tea is made. Green tea is made by steaming and drying the leaves.
The health benefits studied in green tea are thought to be from compounds called polyphenols. Polyphenols are a group of plant chemicals that include catechins . Catechins make up most of the polyphenols in green tea and vary based on the source of the tea leaves and how they are processed. This makes it hard to identify most of the chemical factors linked to the health benefits of green tea.
Some studies have suggested that green tea may protect against heart and blood vessel disease.
People usually drink green tea or take it as a dietary supplement.
For information on laboratory and animal studies done using green tea, see the Laboratory/Animal/Preclinical Studies section of the health professional version of Prostate Cancer, Nutrition, and Dietary Supplements.
Clinical trials
Analysis Of Psa Changes And Statistics
PSA velocity and doubling time were calculated using the Prostate Cancer Research Institute Algorithms.12 Successful outcome was considered a PSADT increase and a PSAV decrease. The binomial expansion was used to calculate the exact probability of the number of successful outcomes among the enrolled patients. A probability of p < 0.05 was taken as indicative of an Apatone effect. Matched t-tests were employed to test for significant difference in PSA velocity and doubling times before and after treatment.13 Linear spline fit analysis was used to measure and compare PSA values before, during and after therapy.12
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Vitamin C And Ozone Prostate Cancer Treatment
Ozone is an energised form of oxygen. It has a disinfecting effect.
At low concentrations, ozone can mobilise the bodys defences and activate the immune system. It also boosts the effect of Vitamin C in cancer treatment.At the Alternative Cancer Treatment Centre in Kehl near Strasbourg, Dr. Hartung uses this combination in the treatment of prostate cancer.
Why Fasting And Vitamin C Work Well In Tandem
The study also provided clues about why previous studies of vitamin C as a potential anticancer therapy showed limited efficacy. By itself, a vitamin C treatment appears to trigger the KRAS-mutated cells to protect cancer cells by increasing levels of ferritin, a protein that binds iron. But by reducing levels of ferritin, the scientists managed to increase vitamin Cs toxicity for the cancer cells. Amid this finding, the scientists also discovered that colorectal cancer patients with high levels of the iron-binding protein have a lower chance of survival.
In this study, we observed how fasting-mimicking diet cycles are able to increase the effect of pharmacological doses of vitamin C against KRAS-mutated cancers, said Maira Di Tano, a study co-author at the IFOM, FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology in Milan. This occurs through the regulation of the levels of iron and of the molecular mechanisms involved in oxidative stress. The results particularly pointed to a gene that regulates iron levels: heme-oxygenase-1.
The research teams prior studies showed that fasting and a fasting-mimicking diet slow cancers progression and make chemotherapy more effective in tumor cells while protecting normal cells from chemotherapy-associated side effects. The combination enhances the immune systems anti-tumor response in breast cancer and melanoma mouse models.
The study was funded by Associazione Italiana Ricerca sul Cancro grant number 21820 and by NIA/NIH Grant # PO1 AG055369.
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Vitc Monotherapy In Palliative Care And Quality Of Life
In palliative care, high-dose VitC is currently gaining ground due to its highly safe and tolerable profile. Not only is high-dose VitC known to relieve pain in cancer patients , vast clinical evidence suggests that it has a significant positive impact on patientsâ well-being . This might be due to the frequent hypovitaminosis and VitC deficiency in cancer patients , which are commonly enhanced by anti-neoplastic treatments .
For instance, a retrospective, multicentre, epidemiological cohort study showed amelioration of appetite, fatigue, depression and sleep disorders in breast cancer and terminal cancer patients suffering from a wide variety of cancer types that received complementary 7.5âg IVC while being treated by respective standard regimens. More recently, a single-center, parallel-group, single-blind interventional study also in breast cancer patients showed a similar and significant reduction of symptoms such as nausea, fatigue, tumor pain and loss of appetite by administering 25âg of IVC per week in addition to their current standard treatment. Favourably, no new side effects were reported after initiation of IVC treatment.
Moreover, another retrospective study showed that patients with radiotherapy-resistant bone metastasis did not only have less pain and better performance measures when given high-dose VitC, they had a median survival time of 10 months as compared to the 2 months median survival time within the control group .
Study Population And Data Collection
Study Population
The Prostate Cancer & Environment Study , described previously , is a population-based case-control study conducted in Montreal, Canada, to assess the role of environmental and lifestyle factors in prostate cancer risk. Eligible subjects were men, younger than 76 years of age at the time of diagnosis or selection, residents of the greater Montreal area, registered on Quebecs permanent electoral list and Canadian citizens.
Cases were all patients newly diagnosed with primary histologically confirmed prostate cancer, actively ascertained through pathology departments across seven French-speaking hospitals in the Montreal area between 2005 and 2009. This covered over 80% of all prostate cancers diagnosed in the region of Montreal during the study period according to registry information. Concurrent to case recruitment, controls were randomly selected from the electoral list of French-speaking men residing in the Montreal area and frequency-matched to cases in 5-year age groups.
Study participants represented 79.4% of eligible cases and 55.5% of eligible controls. For less than 4% of subjects who were not available , the interview was conducted with a proxy respondent, usually the spouse. Reasons for non-participation, among cases and controls, were refusal , unable to trace , death or too sick to participate with no proxy available, and language barrier , respectively.
Data Collection
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Clinical Vitc Monotherapy Studies
Clinical monotherapy studies administering high-dose VitC in patients with various types of advanced malignancies report this therapy to be safe, showing no significant toxicity at doses of up to 3âg/kg . These studies additionally demonstrated that at the given doses, ascorbate plasma levels of over 10âmM could be sustained for several hours, and observed maximum achievable blood concentrations of up to 49âmM . Grade 3 or higher adverse events possibly related to IVC treatment were reported in only 1â2 cases per study , the most common being hypokalemia , hypernatremia , hypertension and anemia . Riordan et al. additionally reported one case of kidney stones in a metastatic CRC patient with a history of renal calculi, suggesting IVC may be contraindicated for patients with renal dysfunction. Nielsen et al. reported one case of pulmonary embolism and pneumonia each, both of which can also be attributed to the underlying disease, since cancer is known to increase the risk of thromboembolic events. Hoffer at al . reported no grade 3 or higher toxicities.
Is High Dose And Intravenous Vitamin C Safe
One of the first steps when researching a new therapy is to establish that it is safe. Thanks to a comprehensive survey of 172 practitioners who had collectively treated over nine thousand patients with an average of 22 IV vitamin C treatments we have a good understanding of the safety of this therapy. With an average IV dose of 28 grams, out of over 200,000 IV vitamin C treatments there were 101 reported side effects which the researchers described as mostly minor, including lethargy/fatigue in 59 patients, change in mental status in 21 patients and vein irritation/phlebitis in 6 patients. Publications documented serious adverse events, including 2 deaths in patients known to be at risk for IV vitamin C. Those who are at risk of adverse effects and not suitable for vitamin C therapy are those with kidney disease and glucose 6 phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency.
Another trial by researchers at the American National Institutes of Health involved giving patients increasing doses up to 110 grams over 4 weeks. All doses were well tolerated. The purpose of the study was to work out what dose achieved optimal blood levels for killing cancer cells. The conclusion was 70 to 80g dose.
Another study in Japan, where vitamin C therapy is more accepted, gave relapsed patients with non-Hodgkins lymphoma increasing doses of IV vitamin C and achieved the desired blood level of 15mm with a 75g dose. No obvious adverse drug reaction was observed in patients the researchers reported.
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The Role Of Intravenous Vitamin C
In a study published in the journal anticancer drugs in 2012, results of high-dose vitamin C induced cytotoxicity in five of the six tested prostate cancer lines. The mechanism of action seems to be through the production of hydrogen peroxide that causes cancer cell death.
This opens up a possible pathway of care for patients facing the diagnosis of early prostate cancer, especially if they have other medical conditions that would make surgery, radiation or chemo therapy more risky.
A functional approach including high-dose intravenous vitamin C, nutritional and supplement therapy, has the potential to blunt cancer progression while delivering enhanced quality of life.
This approach certainly is not for everybody. Careful consultation should be undertaken with a Doctor specialized in intravenous cancer therapy, as well as with your conventional physicians. Ultimately, some patients just are psychologically incapable of living with the knowledge that there are a few cancer cells in their body. For others, who are enlightened to the fact cancer cells are generated on a regular basis, only to be defeated by our bodies immune system, a progressive nonsurgical approach may be worth considering.
Fortunately, prostate cancer is typically a slow moving affair. This gives you time to think, reflect and consider all options before your final decision.
Are Vitamin D And Prostate Health Related
Half of all men over age 50 will be diagnosed with benign prostatic hyperplasia. This statistic rises to nearly 90% in men over age 80. While an enlarged prostate due to BPH can be related to age, it may be even more intricately linked to hormonal and vitamin imbalances in the body.
In fact, numerous studies in recent years may have found a strong link between BPH and vitamin D. A majority of men are deficient in vitamin D, especially as they get older. Studies show this deficiency increases the risk for male sexual health problems among other concerns like cancers, heart disease, and depression.
Lets first take a look at BPH and vitamin D separately, and then use information about both to understand the correlation between the two.
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Intravenous Vitamin C And Metabolic Correction As Adjuvant Therapy For Prostate Cancer: A Case Report
Michael J Gonzalez,4
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1San Juan Bautista School of Medicine, USA2Berdiel Clinic, USA3University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, USA4School of Public Health, USA
Correspondence: Michael J Gonzalez, School of public health, Nutrition Program – Suite B-405, PO BOX 365067, San Juan, USA, Tel 758-2525, Fax 759-6719
Received: July 29, 2016 | Published: August 22, 2016
Citation: Garcia KM, Jesus CD, Berdiel MJ, Massari JRM, Duconge J, et al. Intravenous Vitamin C and Metabolic Correction as Adjuvant Therapy for prostate Cancer: a Case Report. J Cancer Prev Curr Res 5: 00164. DOI: 10.15406/jcpcr.2016.05.00164
Historical Background Of High
Ascorbate is one of the early unorthodox therapies for cancer, based on two hypotheses but without supporting data. Nearly 50 years ago, McCormick postulated that ascorbate protects against cancer by increasing collagen synthesis . In 1972, Cameron and Rotman hypothesized that ascorbate could have anticancer action by inhibiting hyaluronidase and thereby preventing cancer spread . These hypotheses were subsequently popularized by Cameron and Pauling . Cameron and Campbell initially published case reports of 50 patients, some of whom seemed to have benefited from high-dose ascorbate treatment . Although the rationale was not clear, intravenous as well as oral ascorbate was used in most patients.
Cameron and Pauling then published the results of 100 patients with terminal cancer, in whom conventional therapy was no longer considered useful, and who were treated with 10 g ascorbate intravenously for 10 days followed by 10 g orally indefinitely. The ascorbate-treated patients were compared to 1,000 retrospective controls who had similar disease, but did not receive ascorbate or any other definitive anticancer therapy. The patients who received ascorbate survived 300 days longer than the controls .
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High Dose Vitamin C Helps Other Treatments Become Less Toxic
There is a general concern among doctors that high dose vitamin C will somehow interfere with chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Most studies that have tested the safety of high dose vitamin C have reported that patients feel better and that if vitamin C is given alongside chemotherapy or radiation therapy, there are less side-effects.
A good example of this was a study in Germany, where 53 out of 125 breast cancer patients were given IV vitamin C alongside chemotherapy. Those having simultaneous vitamin C therapy reported less than half the intensity of side-effects in particular of nausea, loss of appetite, fatigue, depression, sleep disorders, dizziness and haemorrhagic diathesis, concluded the researchers. No side-effects of the IV vitamin C administration were documented.
Given that vitamin C is an antioxidant some doctors are reluctant to give high dose vitamin C, even though it acts as a pro-oxidant within cancer cells if you get the level high enough, alongside radiation treatment. This concern, however, may not be justified.
Clinical Pharmacokinetics Of Vitamin C
Clinical data show that when ascorbate is given orally, fasting plasma concentrations are tightly controlled at < 100 μM . As doses administered orally exceed 200 mg, absorption decreases, urine excretion increases and ascorbate bioavailability is reduced . In contrast, because intravenous injection bypasses the intestinal absorption system, it results in plasma concentrations elevated to high levels.
Some clinicians have infused more than 10 g of ascorbate in cancer patients and achieved plasma concentrations of 1 to 5 mM . However, their call to restudy its effect in cancer using intravenous ascorbate has gone unheeded. It is now clear that intravenous administration of ascorbate can yield very high plasma levels, while oral treatment does not .
Moreover, vitamin C accumulates in solid tumors to concentrations higher than in surrounding normal tissue . This phenomenon favors the positive outcome of high-dose intravenous vitamin C therapy in cancer patients.
Reported complications of intravenous ascorbate are unusual, but include rare cases of hemolysis in patients with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency and oxalate nephropathy . Adverse effects may also occur in patients with iron overload and renal failure.
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