Vitamin Supplements

Something to consider, if you take supplements, is that they are not regulated by the FDA.  Random tests conducted by reputable organizations like Consumer Reports, Tufts University, and others, show that the amount of supplement contained in the pill or liquid varies wildly from the amount written  on the package label.  If you get USP-verified  supplements, you know the amount is correct.  Costco has some of the best prices and also many USP-verified vitamin supplements.

I've gone back and forth regarding vitamins and have read a lot of the research.  (about five years ago, I posted the same UCSF cancer nutrition link that is listed on this thread.) My opinion at this point is that it's better to get most vitamins from a balanced diet, rather than supplements. You can get a good idea about your vitamin consumption using the free tools on the USDA's SuperTracker website:

https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/default.aspx

Nowadays, about the only supplement I take consistently is Vitamin D, because I live in the Pacific Northwest U.S.

Tall Allen said...
SpecialLady,

As for relatively safe supplemental medications that may help, Metformin looks good so far. Statins - probably not. Aspirin possibly. Celebrex got trampled in the STAMPEDE trial when used with ADT. It still amazes me how many of these supplements and medications look good in lab and retrospective studies, but fail to show a benefit when they are rigorously tested.

Allen, on the other hand, the randomized control trial used for a good reason in our Western evidence-based medicine, may have a limitation in one thing: individual characteristics (genetic make-up and protein expression) of a patient. So, for example, Celebrex may work for a patient with Cox-2 receptor. If a randomized control trial for Celebrex happened to include 80% of PC patients without a Cox-2 receptor, it is no wonder that it failed to show the benefit. Same thing comes to mind when Avastin showed no beenfit for PC, yet none of the patients were tested for VEGF receptor. Perhaps, a more accurate design of a trial would have been to test all patients for Cox-2 receptor, include only the patients who had it, and then draw conclusions about the efficacy of Celebrex in PC.

My fitness and diet, being two of the few things I can control through this process, I've done a lot of research as well.  A Yooper has shared good info.  In the end, I believe a health diet composed of whole foods is everyone's best best.  Suppliments can never be absorbed in pill form as effieciently as icronutrients are from whole foods.  The combinations are endless as well, so who knows what or if single things do thier jobs as well as combinations seen in nature.  At one time, beta carotene was supposed to save us all from heart attacks and cancer, until they found that suppliments of straight beta cartotene actually INCREASED the growth of some cancers!  Getting beta carrotene from a carrot is safe, from a pill, not so much.  That's just my two cents.  I thank all of you for sharing great info in this forum.

Mike

Over the past two years, I have read posts similar to this one regarding most oncologists say to stay away from antioxidants. When I was consulting with with my R.O. i asked him that very question. he acknowledged that most would say to avoid them. He differed and said I could continue to take them during my IGRT/IMRT because he was throwing so much radiation at me, that the small doses I was taking would not have any impact. He did say, if I was taking a therapeutic dosage (megadosasge) he would have discouraged my continued consumption.

Your question is one where there are two distinct camps for and against. It comes down to a personal decision.

Goodluck.

Tall Allen said...
SpecialLady,
We all generate VEGF proteins and COX-2 enzymes and the genes that code for them unless we have a rare genetic disease -- they are part of the normal cellular machinery.

Allen, this is true, but the question is whether the PC cells express those proteins/receptors. Dr.Bonkhoff in Germany is a pathologist who stains for both of those proteins. Cells may be VEGF + or -, or COX-2 + or - . He also stains for androgen receptor, and depending on the intensity of the dye on membranes, PC cells may be AR-, AR+, AR++, etc.