Prostate

[Guest guest]

Hi, all

This should be of great interest to men, or those who care about

men.

Morton

 

Daily News from Healthypages

30 May 2002

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Vitamin E identified as possible prostate cancer treatment

 

Vitamin E may be the latest weapon in the fight against prostate cancer

after US scientists

found that cancer cells exposed to the vitamin died or showed signs of

slower growth.

 

A team from New York’s Rochester University, led by Dr Shuyuan Yeh, say

the vitamin interferes with both the prostate-specific antigen (PSA)

chemical and the androgen receptor, which play a central role in the

development of the disease.

 

In the laboratory, vitamin E exposure led to a 25 to 50 per cent

reduction in the number of cancer cells and, under certain conditions,

killed about 90 per cent of malignant cells.

 

Currently, many of the drugs used to treat prostate cancer work by

inhibiting the production of testosterone or are “anti-androgens” that

prevent the hormone from binding to the androgen receptor, thereby

stopping the receptor from contributing to cell growth.

 

The new research suggests a different way of disabling the receptor. Dr

Yeh and her team believe that one day, instead of cutting off a man’s

testosterone supply to stop the androgen receptor supporting prostate

cancer cells, doctors will be able to disable the receptor itself.

 

The researchers warn that there are different types of vitamin E and

that they vary in their effectiveness when treating prostate cancer. The

type found to be effective in the laboratory was vitamin E succinate.

 

The team also caution that until more is known about the mechanism by

which the vitamin provides its protective role it will be difficult to

develop new treatments that mimic its effect.

 

“This is exciting and quite promising, but until we do further studies

in people, we can’t really recommend that every man take vitamin E to

prevent the disease,” said Dr Edward Messing, a co-author of the study.

 

However, some studies in people have already shown that vitamin E may

help prevent prostate cancer. In a study of 29,000 men in Finland, those

who took vitamin E had about one-third fewer cases of prostate cancer

than those who received no vitamin supplementation.

 

Dr Yeh and her team believe that a new treatment for the disease may be

found by mixing vitamin E with traditional anti-androgen drugs.

 

In the future, Dr Yeh plans to study the effects of vitamin E in

prostate cancer patients and Dr Messing is involved in a large trial

that will test whether vitamin E or selenium alone, or in combination,

can prevent prostate cancer.

 

© Health Media Ltd 2002