Two new studies show supplements can cut the risk of common cancers in men and women.
The first study was released this week in Baltimore at the American Association of Cancer Research’s 4th annual Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research meeting. In the study, researchers from the Roswell Park Center Institute in Buffalo studied the effects of calcitriol on mice genetically altered to develop prostate cancer. Calcitriol is the active substance in vitamin D and has been used in recent clinical trials to treat cancer.
One potential downfall of calcitriol is that it produces abnormally high calcium levels in the blood. Two analogs (QW-1624-F2-2 and paricalcitol), however, are known to reduce these calcium levels in the blood. When researchers studied calcitriol along with QW in the mice, they found both slowed the progression of prostate cancer after 14 weeks of treatment. Adebusola Alagbala, from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, says: “Calcitriol and [QW] are promising for prevention of androgen-dependent prostate cancer progression. Further studies are underway in our laboratory to better understand how these agents prevent prostate cancer.”
In a second study published in the most recent issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, researchers from Northwestern University in Chicago studied cancer cell lines that over-expressed HER-2/neu. HER-2/neu-positive breast cancers represent an aggressive form of breast cancer and have a poor prognosis. Researchers treated the cell lines with gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), a substance found in evening primrose oil and several other plant oils used in herbal medicine.
Results show treating these cancer cells with GLA suppressed the cancer and also led to a 30- to 40-fold increased response to the drug Herceptin, which is commonly used to treat women with breast cancer.
Ruth Lupu, Ph.D., from Northwestern, says, “In our tests, treating the cancer cell lines with both GLA and Herceptin led to a synergistic increase in [cell death] and reduced cancer growth. These findings may reveal a previously unrecognized way of influencing the poor outcome of HER-2/neu-positive cancer patients.”
SOURCE: The American Association of Cancer Researcher’s 4th annual Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Meeting in Baltimore, Oct. 30 – Nov.2, 2005. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2005
