- Strict Diet and Lifestyle Changes May Reduce the Risk of Progression in Early Prostate Cancer
Men with early prostate cancer who follow a strict vegetarian diet, exercise regularly, and practice stress reduction techniques may be able to lower their PSA levels and their risk of cancer progression, according to a study from the Journal of Urology. Researchers wanted to test the ability of a very low-fat diet (10% or less of daily calories) to slow or prevent worsening of early prostate cancer. The diet followed was a variation on the Ornish diet, originally designed by Dean Ornish, M.D., to reduce heart disease risk. The 93 study participants were men with early-stage prostate cancer who had chosen “watchful waiting” instead of active treatment for their prostate cancer. The men were randomly assigned to the Ornish program or to usual care.
During the one-year study, six men in the usual care group underwent conventional treatment because of rising PSA levels (an indication of disease progression) or evidence of progression on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In contrast, none of the men in the comprehensive lifestyle group required treatment. PSA levels decreased 4% in the lifestyle group, whereas PSA levels increased 6% in the usual care group. In addition, cell culture studies showed that blood from men in the lifestyle group inhibited the growth of prostate cancer cells by 70%, compared to 9% for men receiving usual care.
- Prostate Cancer Diagnosis Usually Does Not Mean Shorter Lifespan
Good news for men diagnosed with prostate cancer from the Journal of Clinical Oncology: The vast majority of men diagnosed with prostate cancer today will live as long as their counterparts who do not have prostate cancer. This is the conclusion from an analysis of data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program, a huge national database of cancer statistics.
The researchers examined five- and 10-year survival data for 183,484 men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1990 and 2000. They found that the overall five-year survival rate for prostate cancer patients was 99%; 10-year survival was 95%. Compared with men in the general population, those with prostate cancer had an excess mortality of only 1% at five years and 5% at 10 years. The researchers noted that two-thirds of the men were diagnosed with well-differentiated or moderately differentiated localized/regional cancers. Among these men, there was no increased mortality compared to men in the general population.
Prostate cancer experts continue to debate whether widespread prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening is responsible for lower mortality rates. However, most men diagnosed in the PSA era do not experience excess mortality. This finding should be comforting for men who are living with a prostate cancer diagnosis.
