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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Pomegranate Juice Helps Older Men Recover from
Prostate Cancer Treatment
 July 1, 2006 - Pomegranate juice packs a punch on
prostate cancer that prolongs post-surgery PSA doubling time, drives
down cancer cell proliferation and causes prostate cancer cells to die,
according to a study of older men published in the July 1 issue of
Clinical Cancer Research.
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Pomegranate Hottest Health Remedy: Fad or Fact?
Whats all this hype about
a little known and rarely seen fruit
By Tucker Sutherland, editor
Sept.
29, 2005 So whats with this surge of pomegranate hype. This fruit is
being touted as a miracle drug for aging, Alzheimers, cancer, heart
disease, arthritis and even protecting unborn babies from brain
injuries. It cures about anything that can ail an aging senior citizen.
It has become a popular ingredient for mixed drinks, ice cream and even
bottled water. Its now a popular decoration for table displays.
President Bush even brought it up in his meeting in May with Afghanistan
President Karzai, suggesting they grow these trees rather than poppies.
The Centers for Disease Control honored it by naming it the fruit of the
month.
Read
more...
Centers for Disease Control Names
Pomegranate Fruit of Month
How to prepare it,
recipes, more - click here
Read more
on
Health & Medicine |
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PSA, or prostate specific antigen, is a protein
marker for prostate cancer. The faster PSA levels increase in the blood
of men after treatment, the greater their potential for dying of
prostate cancer.
Researchers at the Jonsson Cancer Center at UCLA
reported that patients with recurrent prostate cancer who drank
pomegranate after surgery or radiation treatment saw their PSA blood
content levels double after about 54 months. By comparison, PSA levels
in the same patients prior to drinking the daily doses of eight-ounce
pomegranate juice accelerated more quickly, doubling their PSA levels in
only 15 months.
"The velocity of the increase in PSA is decreased
by 35 percent among those who drank the pomegranate juice," said Allan
Pantuck, M.D., associate professor, Department of Urology, David Geffen
School of Medicine, UCLA, and lead author of the paper.
"That's a big increase. I was surprised when I saw
such an improvement in PSA numbers," Pantuck said. "In older men 65 to
70 who have been treated for prostate cancer, we can give them
pomegranate juice and it may be possible for them to outlive their risk
of dying from their cancer. We're hoping we may be able to prevent or
delay the need for other therapies usually used in this population such
as hormone treatment or chemotherapy, both of which bring with them
harmful side effects."
"We are hoping that pomegranate juice offers a
novel strategy for prolonging the doubling time in men who have been
treated for prostate cancer," Dr. Pantuck added.
According to the study, sera from patients after
treatment yielded a net decrease of almost 30 percent in the numbers of
prostate cancer cells raised in culture. Similarly, cultured sera from
these patients decreased cell proliferation by 12 percent, compared to
cells grown with sera from the men taken prior to initiation of the
pomegranate treatment program. In addition, treated sera induced 17
percent more programmed cell death, or apoptosis, than sera from the men
prior to treatment.
Additional exploratory experiments conducted by Dr.
Pantuck and his colleagues examined antioxidant characteristics of the
fruit juice.
"Pomegranate is high in antioxidants, and there is
good evidence that inflammation plays an important role in prostate
cancer," he said.
Dr. Pantuck and his colleagues detected a 23
percent increase in nitric oxide sera content from patients after they
began their daily pomegranate regimen. These studies were conducted in
the UCLA laboratory of Louis Ignarro, Ph.D., the Nobel laureate who
contributed key scientific findings to define the role of nitric oxide
in health and disease.
As with vitamin C and other antioxidants, ellagic
acid a primary antioxidant in pomegranate juice works to quench
molecules that oxidate, or add oxygen, to cellular and circulatory
proteins and fats, altering their biological function.
"By quenching oxidative species with antioxidants,
you are basically preserving circulating nitric oxide, so it can have a
greater biologic effect," Dr. Pantuck said. "By decreasing the amount of
free radicals, you are probably decreasing the circulating factors that
are destroying nitric oxide."
While their findings on nitric oxide, cell
proliferation and apoptosis served as exploratory endpoints, Dr. Pantuck
stressed that clinical trials with more precise design are necessary to
confirm the biological role the fruit plays in prolonging or preventing
recurrence of prostate cancer in men.
"We don't believe we are curing anyone from
prostate cancer," he said.
"In our initial trial, although a third of patients
experienced a decrease in their PSA during the study, nobody's PSA went
to zero.
"The PSA doubling time, however, was longer. For
many men, this may extend the years after surgery or radiation that they
remain recurrence free and their life expectancy is extended. They may
be able to prevent the need to undergo additional therapies, such as
radiation, hormonal or chemotherapies."
More about study:
Dr. Pantuck's colleagues who contributed to this
study included Ignarro, John Leppert, Nazy Zomarodian, William Aronson,
Jenny Hong, James Bernard, Navindra Seeram, Harley Liker, Hejing Wang,
Robert Elashoff, David Heber, and Arie Belldegrun from the departments
of Urology, Medicine, Physiologic Science or Biomathematics at the David
Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA. Michael Aviram from the Technion
Faculty of Medicine, the Rambam Medical Center, Bat Galim, Haifa,
Israel, also contributed to these studies.
Funding to support these studies came from the
Lynda and Stewart Resnick Revocable Trust. The Resnicks are the owners
of the POM Wonderful Company. Additional NIH funding (P50CA92131 and
IR01CA100938) supported portions of the science conducted in the course
of these experiments.
The mission of the American Association for
Cancer Research is to prevent and cure cancer. Founded in 1907, AACR is
the world's oldest and largest professional organization dedicated to
advancing cancer research. The membership includes more than 24,000
basic, translational, and clinical researchers; health care
professionals; and cancer survivors and advocates in the United States
and more than 60 other countries. AACR marshals the full spectrum of
expertise from the cancer community to accelerate progress in the
prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer through high-quality
scientific and educational programs. It funds innovative, meritorious
research grants. The AACR Annual Meeting attracts more than 17,000
participants who share the latest discoveries and developments in the
field. Special Conferences throughout the year present novel data across
a wide variety of topics in cancer research, treatment, and patient
care. AACR publishes five major peer-reviewed journals: Cancer Research;
Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular
Cancer Research; and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Its
most recent publication, CR, is a magazine for cancer survivors, patient
advocates, their families, physicians, and scientists. It provides a
forum for sharing essential, evidence-based information and perspectives
on progress in cancer research, survivorship, and advocacy.
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