Herbal help for prostate cancer

[Guest guest]

(cross posted from another list but so important)

 

A mixture of Chinese herbs may offer hope to men with prostate cancer

that hasn't responded to conventional medicine. Hundreds or perhaps

thousands of men are using the herbs, marketed as PC-SPES, say

medical experts. PC stands for prostate cancer and SPES are the first

four letters of the Latin word for hope.

 

The herbs seem to work as well as conventional hormone therapies,

which reduce testosterone and arrest the growth of prostate cancer,

though with some dangerous side effects, says a new study by American

researchers.

 

But more exciting, they say, is that the herbs halted the growth of

cancer for some men who previously had not responded to hormone

therapy at all.

 

" That was very exciting and suggested that this herb product was also

working in a non-hormone fashion, " says lead author Dr Eric Small, an

associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of

California, San Francisco.

 

" In that group of patients for whom hormone therapy doesn't work,

there are not many alternatives, " Small says. Findings appear in

today's Journal of Clinical Oncology.

 

Hormone therapy is considered a treatment of last resort and usually

is begun after men have opted for either surgical removal of the

prostate or radiation. Even when effective, it typically works only

for several years, until the body adjusts to it and the cancer begins

to spread again.

 

Why PC-SPES works for men who haven't responded to hormone therapy

has not been determined yet, Small says. His research has been funded

by CaP Cure, a non-profit group founded by Michael Milken that's

devoted to research in prostate cancer.

 

In the UK, 9,400 men die of the disease each year, and it is

predicted to become the most common cancer in the Uk by the year

2018.

 

Small and his colleagues worked with 33 men who had not yet tried

hormone therapy, but whose bloods test for prostate-specific antigen

(PSA) showed abnormal growth in the prostate gland. A score above 4

or a rise in PSA suggests the need for a biopsy, and Small says the

men had on average a score of 7.9.

 

The researchers also worked with 37 men who had tried hormone therapy

but had found it ineffective. Their average PSA was 60.7, Small says.

 

In the first group, called hormone-dependent, every man saw his PSA

decline 80 per cent to 100 per cent after taking PC-SPES, an extract

from eight Chinese herbs, the study says. For 26 men, the PSA dropped

below detectable levels.

 

The gains stood for the duration of the 57-month study, the

researchers add.

 

However, Small says how long PSAs would remain low needs more study.

Some men anecdotally report their PSAs began to rise after a period

of using the herbs, much as with hormone therapy, he says.

 

In any case, the herbs usually are not covered by US health insurance

and would cost more than US$400 (about £250)a month, Small says. By

contrast, conventional hormone therapy has a proven track record,

while the herbs produce a number of side effects, including life-

threatening clots, he says.

 

In Small's study, three of the 70 participants developed clots, about

4 per cent of the group.

 

" I see no reason to use it instead of hormone therapy, " Small says.

 

It's a different story, though, when hormone therapy doesn't work.

 

The second group in Small's study, called hormone-independent men --

those who had not responded to hormone therapy -- showed far more

interesting and hopeful results from the herbs, he says.

 

About 54 per cent of these men saw more than 50 per cent drop in

their PSAs, Small says. And, although the drop lasted on average only

four months, he says something non-hormonal in the herbs caused the

drop. Further, five of those 37 men have maintained their low PSAs,

the study says.

 

" These are people for whom there really are no alternatives, " Small

says.

 

Dr Aaron E Katz, an assistant professor of urology at Columbia

University in New York, who also has studied PC-SPES in advanced

prostate cancer patients, says that about 80 per cent of men with

prostate cancer do not respond to conventional hormone therapy,

although no one yet knows why.

 

His studies also have shown that the Chinese herbs offer some hope to

these men, Katz says.

 

The latest research adds to the growing body of evidence that PC-SPES

can fight prostate cancer, Katz says.

 

" It's not something fake, " he says. " It's obviously real. With more

and more patients involved in studies, obviously we may be able to

learn something of real value. "