Discoveries
Herbal supplement PC-SPES offers promising results against progressive prostate cancer
In support groups across the country, an herbal supplement called PC-SPES has been touted for some time as being able to slow the growth of prostate tumors.
William Oh, MD
Now that word-of-mouth endorsement has some scientific backing. In a study earlier this year, investigators led by Dana-Farber's William Oh, MD, found that the supplement may be effective against prostate cancers that do not respond to conventional hormone therapy. Twenty of the 23 patients who took PC-SPES averaged a 40-percent decline in their blood levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), Oh and his colleagues reported. (PSA levels are the most common indicator of the presence of prostate cancer and the effectiveness of treatment.)
Older patients and those who had received hormonal therapy for the longest time were the most likely to respond to PC-SPES, the researchers found. On average, the PSADiscoveries reducing effectiveness of the supplement lasted two months. "Even if PC-SPES works only half the time in this group of patients, it's worth using because it decreases pain and suffering, which is a high risk for these men," Oh says. He stresses that the supplement, which is made from eight herbal compounds, is not an appropriate treatment for men with early-stage prostate cancer who still have a chance of being cured by surgery or radiation therapy.
The study was published in the January 2001 issue of Urology.
