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The CancerWeb Report, What's New In Cancer
Cancer Prevention: September 1995
Last modified on:
Tuesday, April 20, 1999 12:03:12
Copyright © 1994-2008, Information Ventures, Inc.
Preventive Measures For Prostate Cancer - More hints as to preventive measures for prostate cancer come from the Dana Farber Cancer Center and
Harvard University reporting at a meeting abstracted in the FASEB Journal. Part of the Health Professionals Follow-Up
Study of 50,000 men aged 40-75 years, the data suggested there is a reduction in prostate cancer risk with greater intake of
lycopene a carotene derivative especially plentiful in tomatoes. Lycopene, especially the transform which predominates in tomatoes,
inhibits proliferation of prostate tumor cells, as does beta-carotene, according to Dr. Williams at the University of Illinois. On a
related note, Dr. Santos of Tufts University, Boston reported in the same journal that beta-carotene (50 mg on alternate days) eliminated the age
difference in natural killer cell (NK cell) activity in a study of 51-64 versus 65-86 year-old physicians in the Physicians'
Health Study. Killer cells, part of the immune system, are believed to be especially critical in fighting tumor cells.
There was no increase in the percentage of killer cells, and there may be other changes at work such as increased interleukin-
12 which make the cells more active.
Vitamin D to Treat or Prevent Prostate Cancer - Other work suggests a vitamin D-related approach to treating or preventing prostate cancer. Dr. Gary Miller, of the University
of Colorado Medical Center in Denver, reported in the September, 1995 issue of Clinical Cancer Research intriguing findings in seven
prostate cancer cell lines. All the lines have receptors for this vitamin, which functions both as a hormone and a vitamin,
and all had the enzyme, 24-hydroxylase, which inactivates the active form of vitamin D, 1-alpha,25-dihydroxy vitamin D3. The
latter inhibited the growth of prostate cancer cell lines. Growth inhibition was related both to the number of receptors
(inhibition increased with more receptors) and the levels of 24-hydroxylase. Levels of the enzyme were low in lines
inhibited by 1-alpha,25-dihydroxy vitamin D3, suggesting that for chemoprevention of cancer, analogs of vitamin D less susceptible
to degradation by 24-hydroxylase might be more effective.
Sunlight prevent cancer? - An interesting speculation on the implications of vitamin D findings to cancer epidemiology by Doctors Studzinsky and Moore
appeared in the September 15, 1995, issue of Cancer Research. Their article - "Sunlight - can it prevent as well as cause
cancer?" Excessive exposure of light-complexioned people to sunlight has received lots of attention; it clearly ages their
skin and favors development of skin cancers. What of dark-complexioned people who move to or live in regions of low sun
exposure? The active form of vitamin D, 1-alpha,25-dihydroxy vitamin D3, causes many types of cancer cells to differentiate
into normal cells. Sunlight is important in producing the active form of vitamin D, and sunlight deprivation, with reduced
circulating levels of 1-alpha,25-dihydroxy vitamin D3 may perhaps increase the incidence of breast, colon and prostate cancers.
Prostate and breast cancers tend to be more aggressive in black than in white Americans, a fact which cannot be explained
completely on the basis of socioeconomic factors.
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