Diet, Drugs May Stop Prostate Cancer
Trials Poised to Identify Prevention Strategies
Sept. 24, 2007 -- How to lower cancer risk in men is one of the hottest areas in prevention research. Now a new study shows there should be some definitive answers on prostate cancer within the next few years.
A host of trials are under way investigating drug treatments, nutritional supplements, and foods that have shown promise for the prevention of prostate cancer.
Urologist and prostate cancer researcher Neil Fleshner, MD, MPH, of the University of Toronto, says these trials should soon lead to effective evidence-based strategies to prevent the disease.
Fleshner’s review of the prostate cancer prevention research appears in the latest online issue of the journal Cancer.
“There is great hope that within the next five years we will have relatively inexpensive and very effective ways to minimize the burden of prostate cancer,” he tells WebMD.
But a cancer epidemiologist who also spoke to WebMD called the five-year timeline optimistic.
“Results from these clinical trials should shed some light on what can be done, but I am doubtful that they will provide all the answers,” says Carmen Rodriguez, MD, of the American Cancer Society.
Food, Drug Strategies for Prevention
Several studies have linked the consumption of animal fat -- especially fat found in red meat and high-fat dairy products -- to an increase in prostate cancer risk.
The overall health benefits of limiting red meat and high-fat dairy foods are well-known. Fleshner says reducing prostate cancer risk may prove to be one more benefit of eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables and low in animal fat.
One of the most promising strategies for preventing prostate cancer in high-risk men had been treatment with the prostate enlargement drug finasteride (known commercially as Proscar) or similar drugs.
But a large trial of finasteride, involving close to 19,000 men who were at average risk for developing the disease, produced confusing results.
While the men in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT) who took the drug had a 25% reduction in prostate cancers compared with men who didn't, they also had more advanced and aggressive tumors.
The clinical significance of both of these findings remains in doubt. It is not clear if finasteride actually promotes higher-grade tumors or if the finding was due to the study design.