TURMERIC FOR PROSTATE
NATURAL PROSTATE CANCER TREATMENT FOR DISCUSSION WITH YOUR PHYSICIAN
The annual gathering of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is considered the world’s most prestigious cancer forum. More than 25,000 oncology experts attend this meeting, and the media eagerly reports on meaningful advances in cancer prevention and treatment.
At the 2013 ASCO meeting, findings from a study were released that underscored how effective certain natural compounds can be as a prostate cancer therapy.
In this placebo-controlled, double-blind trial of treatment-refractory prostate cancer patients, a four-nutrient supplement resulted in a 63.8% median reduction in the increase of PSA levels.1 The PSA marker is used by oncologists to determine progression or regression of prostate cancer, and to evaluate whether treatments are working or failing.
In the study presented at ASCO, patients with a PSA relapse after radiotherapy or surgery for localized prostate cancer took two daily capsules containing pomegranate seed, broccoli, green tea, and turmeric. Over a six-month period, median PSA levels increased only 14.7% in the supplement group—compared to 78.5% in the placebo group!1 PSA levels remained stable, or below, baseline values for a compelling 46% of the supplement patients—but for only 14% of the placebo patients.
Prostate cancer is the most common malignancy in US men (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer),2 affecting one male in every six.3 Autopsy findings show a significant percentage of men have underlying prostate cancer without even knowing it.4-6
This article will present evidence about the prostate cancer preventing effects of a wide range of nutrients. What makes this topic so compelling are the recent findings presented at ASCO showing that pomegranate seed, green tea, broccoli, and turmeric(source of curcumin) were so effective in prostate cancer patients.1 The implication is that these nutrients may also afford considerable protection against prostate cancer progression.
Most impressive, however, is the voluminous amount of scientific evidence that substantiates the anti-cancer properties of these nutrients. Yet mainstream medicine remains largely in the dark.
Science News
Curry and Cauliflower Could Halt Prostate Cancer
Source:
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
Summary:
Rutgers researchers found that the curry spice turmeric (curcumin) holds real potential for both the treatment and prevention of prostate cancer, particularly when combined with phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC), a naturally occurring substance particularly abundant in cruciferous vegetables including watercress, cabbage, winter cress, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, cauliflower, kohlrabi and turnips. Using immunodeficient mice, these were the first prostate cancer experiments to be performed in vivo with curcumin and PEITC.
FULL STORY
Rutgers researchers have found that the curry spice turmeric holds real potential for the treatment and prevention of prostate cancer, particularly when combined with certain vegetables.
The scientists tested turmeric, also known as curcumin, along with phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC), a naturally occurring substance particularly abundant in a group of vegetables that includes watercress, cabbage, winter cress, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, cauliflower, kohlrabi and turnips. "The bottom line is that PEITC and curcumin, alone or in combination, demonstrate significant cancer-preventive qualities in laboratory mice, and the combination of PEITC and curcumin could be effective in treating established prostate cancers," said Ah-Ng Tony Kong, a professor of pharmaceutics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
The discovery was announced in the Jan. 15 issue of the journal Cancer Research by Kong and his colleagues at Rutgers' Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy.
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in
The authors are Tin Oo Khor, Young-Sam Keum, Wen Lin, Jung-Hwan Kim, Rong Hu, Guoxiang Shen, Changjiang Xu, Avanthika Gopalakrishnan, Bandaru Reddy, Xi Zheng, Allan H. Conney and Ah-Ng Tony Kong, all from Rutgers.
men in the United States, with a half-million new cases appearing each year. The incidence and mortality of prostate cancer have not decreased in past decades despite tremendous efforts and resources devoted to treatment. This is because advanced prostate cancer cells are barely responsive even to high concentrations of chemotherapeutic agents or radiotherapy.
The authors noted that in contrast to the high incidence of prostate cancer in the United States, the incidence of this disease is very low in India. This has been attributed to the dietary consumption of large amounts of plant-based foods rich in phytochemicals � nonnutritive plant chemicals that have protective or disease-preventive properties.
Consequently, scientists have been investigating intervention options based on compounds found in edible and medicinal plants. They have had some success, and a majority of patients with prostate cancer are now combining the conventional therapies with these compounds as alternative, supplementary or complementary medications.
For Kong's study, researchers used mice bred so that their immune systems would not reject foreign biological material and injected the mice with cells from human prostate cancer cell lines to grow tumors against which the compounds could be tested.
"Despite convincing data from laboratory cell cultures, we knew little about how PEITC and curcumin would perform in live animals, especially on prostate cancer," Kong said. "So we undertook this study to evaluate how effective PEITC and curcumin might be -- individually and in combination -- to prevent and possibly treat prostate cancer."
The researchers injected the mice with curcumin or PEITC, alone or in combination, three times a week for four weeks, beginning a day before the introduction of the prostate cancer cells. They found the injections significantly retarded the growth of cancerous tumors. Using PEITC and curcumin in tandem produced even stronger effects.
The group went on to evaluate the therapeutic potential of curcumin and PEITC in mice with well-established tumors, and the results showed that PEITC or curcumin alone had little effect, whereas the combination of curcumin and PEITC significantly reduced tumor growth.
The paper, "Combined Inhibitory Effects of Curcumin and Phenethyl Isothiocyanate on the Growth of Human PC-3 Prostate Xenografts in Immunodeficient Mice," is available at cancerres.aacrjournals.org.
With a half-million new cases appearing each year. The incidence and mortality of prostate cancer have not decreased in past decades despite tremendous efforts and resources devoted to treatment. This is because advanced prostate cancer cells are barely responsive even to high concentrations of chemotherapeutic agents or radiotherapy.
The authors noted that in contrast to the high incidence of prostate cancer in the United States, the incidence of this disease is very low in India. This has been attributed to the dietary consumption of large amounts of plant-based foods rich in phytochemicals � nonnutritive plant chemicals that have protective or disease-preventive properties.
Consequently, scientists have been investigating intervention options based on compounds found in edible and medicinal plants. They have had some success, and a majority of patients with prostate cancer are now combining the conventional therapies with these compounds as alternative, supplementary or complementary medications.
"Despite convincing data from laboratory cell cultures, we knew little about how PEITC and curcumin would perform in live animals, especially on prostate cancer," Kong said. "So we undertook this study to evaluate how effective PEITC and curcumin might be -- individually and in combination -- to prevent and possibly treat prostate cancer."
The group went on to evaluate the therapeutic potential of curcumin and PEITC in mice with well-established tumors, and the results showed that PEITC or curcumin alone had little effect, whereas the combination of curcumin and PEITC significantly reduced tumor growth.
Curcumin, an ingredient of the Indian spice Turmeric, has been shown to stop the formation of metastases in prostate cancer patients, researchers from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich, Germany, reported in the journal Carcinogenesis today.
Turmeric, has been used for hundreds of years for the treatment of various illnesses, such as osteoarthritis. Curcumin, its active ingredient, stops inflammatory reactions, the scientists explained.
Several studies over the last few years have discovered a wide range of potential medicinal uses for curcumin. In March 2012 researchers from Michigan State University found that curcumin may be beneficial for people with Parkinson's disease.
Prostate cancer is one of the most common malignancies in Western societies. Unfortunately, it is often diagnosed too late, when tumors have metastasized - spread to other parts of the body. When a cancer metastasizes, the chances of dying from the disease increase dramatically.
PD Dr. Beatrice Bachmeier and team have been carrying out research on how a natural product that inhibits the formation of metastases behaves. Curcumin, as mentioned above, is found in turmeric, a plant that has had medicinal properties and has been widely used for thousands of years; it is also a major ingredient of curry. Curcumin is the polyphenol that gives curry its characteristic color.
As curcumin is well tolerated, it can be used both as preventive therapy (prophylactic) as well as treating prostate cancer patients whose tumors have already metastasized (secondary prevention).
Bachmeier and team had already shown that curcumin undermines the formation of metastatic tumors in the lungs in animal models with advanced breast cancer.
Prostate Cancer: Curcumin Curbs Metastases, Study Shows
ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2012)— Powdered turmeric has been used for centuries to treat osteoarthritis and other illnesses. Its active ingredient, curcumin, inhibits inflammatory reactions. A new study led by a research team at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich now shows that it can also inhibit formation of metastases.
Prostate cancer is one of the most prevalent malignancies in the Western world, and is often diagnosed only after metastatic tumors have formed in other organs. In three percent of cases, these metastases are lethal. A research team led by PD Dr. Beatrice Bachmeier at LMU Munich has been studying the mode of action of a natural product that inhibits the formation of metastases. The compound is found in turmeric, a plant that has been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years, and is a major ingredient of curry.
Bachmeier's research centers on curcumin, the polyphenol responsible for the characteristic color of curry. Curcumin is well tolerated and is therefore, in principle, suitable both for prophylactic use (primary prevention) and also for the suppression of metastases in cases where an established tumor is already present (secondary prevention). In a previous study Bachmeier and her colleagues had demonstrated that the substance reduces statistically significantly the formation of lung metastases in an animal model of advanced breast cancer.
Mitigating metastasis The new study was designed to investigate the efficacy of curcumin in the prevention of prostate cancer metastases, and to determine the agent's mechanism of action. The researchers first examined the molecular processes that are abnormally regulated in prostate carcinoma cells. Breast and prostate cancers are often associated with latent or chronic inflammatory reactions, and in both cases, the tumor cells were found to produce pro-inflammatory immunomodulators including the cytokines CXCL1 und CXCL2.
The researchers went on to show that curcumin specifically decreases the expression of these two proteins, and in a mouse model, this effect correlated with a decline in the incidence of metastases. "Due to the action of curcumin, the tumor cells synthesize smaller amounts of cytokines that promote metastasis," says Bachmeier. "As a consequence, the frequency of metastasis formation in the lungs is significantly reduced, in animals with breast cancer, as we showed previously, or carcinoma of the prostate, as demonstrated in our new study."
Curcumin and chemoprevention Bachmeier therefore believes that curcumin may be useful in the prevention of breast and prostate cancers -- which are both linked to inflammation -- and in reducing their metastatic potential. "This does not mean that the compound should be seen as a replacement for conventional therapies. However, it could play a positive role in primary prevention -- before a full-blown tumor arises -- or help to avert formation of metastases. In this context the fact that the substance is well tolerated is very important, because one can safely recommend it to individuals who have an increased tumor risk."
A daily intake of up to 8g of curcumin is regarded as safe, and its anti-inflammatory properties have long been exploited in traditional oriental medicine. Men with benign hyperplasia of the prostate (BHP) are one possible target group for prophylaxis, as are women who have a family history of breast cancer. The agent might also be valuable as a supplement to certain cancer therapies. At all events, curcumin's beneficial effects must first be confirmed in controlled clinical tests. Bachmeier is now planning such a trial in patients who suffer from therapy-resistant carcinoma of the prostate.