Can pepper capsules cure prostate cancer?

Hi Everyone,

I saw this on another forum and I thought perhaps the topic might be worthy of investigation here. I hope I'm not starting a thread that has already been thoroughly discussed previously. The claim was that published research determined that human prostate cancer cells planted in mice "commit suicide" when exposed in the lab to cayenne pepper (active ingredient - capsaicin). The forum poster decided to take large amounts of cayenne pepper capsules and claimed that it cured his prostate cancer. His post is here: http://www.cancerforums.net/about8898.html .

Has anyone heard about this or tried it?

MichGuy

______________________
Age: 59, 59 at DX
PSA: 1/20/00 7.9, 7/22/00 3.3, 10/25/01 4.9, 10/19/04 5.1, 9/26/07 5.98, 8/28/08 7.68, 9/23/08 7.36, 10/23/08 8.64, 12/18/08 6.39
Prostate size: 96cc
Biopsy: 11/7/08 Positive 2 of 15 cores, both in rt apex, composite tumor quantity 5% prostate involved, Gleason 3+4, Gleason pattern 4 accounts for 15% of tumor
Stage: T1c

My apologies for resurrecting an old topic. I'm a newbie here.

I contacted Cedars Sanai/UCLA when this posting hit our site. All in the same time frame, about 8 sites were hit with a claim of a cure ~ which of course is impossibe to prove, all from the same guy.

First the study:
Cedars Sinai found that capsiacin did promote apoptosis in lab rats. The lab rats were treated with "processed doses intraveniously". They did not injest in food form because high doses of capsiacin can damage digestive tracks. That stated, no rats were cured. Some did show smaller tumor volume. Cedars Sinai has not released more than that pertaining to the study in 2006. There have been no studies in humans.

From The National Cancer Institute and the American Society of Clinical Oncology:
High doses of capsiacin have been shown to inhibit the performance of prostate cancer medications including Taxotere. There is also evidence that capsiacin masked PSA Assay tests. Both groups recommend against any extreme high doses in supplimentation because of the lack of documentation about side effects on humans or the performance of their medications.

Because of the poster here claiming he had a cure, and a friend who was a doctor also posting at these sites and blogging that he was opening a suppliments website, we treated it as spam. Since I don't know if it was spam or just overzelous behavior. The doctor and the poster were deleted.

In my opinion, it is absurd to be diagnosed with prostate cancer through biopsy, read a study like this one, start hammering the pills, and a couple months later say "I'm cured here's how". Even if the poster is legit, he has no evidence to suggest a cure ~ another biopsy would not be enough to do so, a lower PSA would not be enough, and we all know this cancer to be deceptive enough to use longer time intervals to see how our treatment is progressing. The moderator at that forum you show let the post stand, other moderators remove the poster. There has been little posting since that one month period from the doctor or the "pepper poster". And there have been no other claims of a cure.

Tony

Oh no not the peppers again. LOL I remember this from the first time. I guess it's just human nature to hope for some magic supplement or food to save the day. Meanwhile they still advertise lycopene or state it on bottles of ketchup.

Some foods that may be useful in antioxidant for cells and have usefulness towards cancers are:

broccoli (amongest the best), cauliflower, tomatoes, red/bright colored vegetables/fruits, and especially watermelon, soy products, turmeric, modified fruit pectin (can buy in capsules) and there are more.

Key is may be useful and may have results even, may be good at prevention of some cancers. It would be wise to eat such in your diets. Cut out red meats, hi fats, hi sugars, bad oils if possilbe.

Green tea, pepper . . . whatever, there will always be someone pitching one "cure" or another. If it sounds too silly to be true, that's probably because it is (too silly to be taken seriously).

My 2 cents.

I am very skeptical about any claims of dietary or other supplements claims cure out there. If they really are cures, somebody should be getting be very rich.

However..

I do think there is much unknown about links to diet and slowing the rate of progression of the disease.

I have read something about this with pomegranate juice.

So since pomegranate juice is not as obtrusive than hormone therapy, cheaper than hormone therapy, and less side effects than hormone therapy, sign me up for taking my daily pomegranate juice even though the effects of this are not yet proven. If it can buy me 8 years of remission as opposed to 5, then great. If not, there is not that much of a downside.

In that same vein, I wonder if there are other foods or supplements that I could take similar to pomegranate juice.  Hmm..like pepper.  I just put into google "pepper prostate cancer" and it does seem that is a link they are looking into.

Is it a cure.  Nah.  But could it possibly extend remission.  Perhaps.  Is there a downside..yeah..not a big fan of super hot food..but maybe I can adjust (thinking about it).

If anyone's interested, here where you can download the actual research article: http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/reprint/66/6/3222

Hi MichGuy,

I read an article similar to this one but not as scientific. I also read the abstract of a more scientific article published in a medical journal. This article appears to be a bit better than either of my previous references. I take two pepper capsules a day as a result. Figured I would try it. So far no gastrointestinal issues from the pepper. The only thing that gives me pause is that it has only been tested in mice. There seems to be a lot of things like this that work in mice. Sometimes I wish I was a mouse too. Until I got this PCa I had no idea how interested humans are in the health of mice.

Anyway, thanks for the post and the link.

Take care,

Don

Yeah Tony I have always loved spicy foods. I grew up in an Italian neighborhood in Ohio and spiced up all my pastas and pizzas. Then I moved out here and can eat hotter mexican foods than near all mexicans I know. Back to lycopene and all that early Italian sauces I've taken multivitamins with lycopene since it first was added. Thus so much for magic food and supplements. But I still take Omega 3 fish capsules and multivitamins (neither are exorbitantly priced) insisting they have folic acid in them over folate. But maybe those too will be discredited in time like selinium, mangosteen etc.. I think many people have needlessly spent dollars on expensive urine and gas. Green tea is an excellent antioxidant but you need to drink more than most people do. Personally I drink more black than green tea, but I never drank coffee. Will that make any difference? I doubt it. But still people will spend hopeful dollars on maybe just maybe a magic bullet. Just don't count on them... skeptical Ziggy

I will just be blunt for one, lol, I think the entire pepper theory is just snake oil in another form. People are always looking for some obvious miracle cure that it right under their nose all that time, and someone just happens to get turned on to it. While hardly perfect, we live in an age of great medical treatments and improvements, a lot of good medications out there, I am more inclined to stick to the tried and proven. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with a healthy diet and lifestyle, the amount of needed health care in this country would drop drastically if everyone ate less, ate better, and exercised, and didn't smoke. Wouldn't stop eveyrthing bad from happening, but it would sure help. Excuse my rant.

David in SC

realziggy, i have nothing against peppers or spicy food, due to the radiation i had back in 2000, it left my mouth and throat incapable of eating anything remotely spicy. I eat all my salads dry without dressing, never use ketcup, mustard, most other condiments. I never add salt to anything. I miss being able to eat a big hot plate of nachos and cheese.

David in SC

Good post, bob,
There are things that can and do work well. Peppers and such maybe on the horizon of a successful drug. I have no doubt that there are hidden secrets in nature that can cure cancers. Like you say, we are supplimenting way more than ever before. Unfortunately there is way more cancer found than ever before as well. Relation? Probably not. But it could be just as easily. I asked my oncologist why Pacific Rim Asians had less prostate cancer percentages and if he thought diet was the primary reason. He wasn't buying it much. He told me to remember that PCa is largely heredity. But that it could also easily be other things in our environments ~ pesitcides, hair gel, deoderant, even the plastic in a toothbrush or water bottle that trigger prostate cancer. You have to look at everything different in the socialeconomics of the Pacific Rim, not just diet, in order to prove that anything is a cause.

On topic to MichGuys post ~ We still lack a scientific study on capsaicin of its effectiveness in humans, propper introduction to our systems, drug interactions, and what it's side effects are when delivered in high doses. We have seen hundreds of lawsuits against drug companies for releasing drugs that killed people, but at least they were held to some standard before releasing a treatment protocol. Taking a study like this and slamming the suppliment, then a couple months later declaring to the world you have been cured? For me, the bells and whistles went off when he declared he had another biopsy to prove it. Doctors will tell you that needle biopsies of the prostate are less than 65% effective at finding cancer in the first place. So no doctor would do another prostate biopsy after they already found it once. What good would it do to even get a negative second biopsy? I know the doctor wouldn't say, "well how about that, your cured" or even "Whatever it is you're doing, keep doing it, that's enough for me". They might say "It's ok if you don't want to do anything right now. But we should monitor this like a hawk searching for a mouse". I think Ziggy is the only member at this site that has a legitimate reason for additional prostate biopsies after the finding of a positive result. Any other TFT Cryo guys will too. Sounds like HIFU guys might as well be getting multiple biopsies in the future. When you understand these modalities, you can understand why.

Tony