Encouraging Health

Fish

Men who eat salmon and other fish high in omega-3 fatty acids on a regular basis have a decreased risk for developing advanced prostate cancer, new research suggests.

The association was most pronounced among men believed to have a genetic predisposition for developing aggressive prostate cancer.

Men in the study who ate one or more servings of fatty fish a week were found to have a 63% lower risk for developing aggressive prostate cancer than men who reported never eating fish, study co-researcher John S. Witte, PhD, tells WebMD.

The study is not the first to find that men who eat fatty fish have a lower risk for the most deadly forms of prostate cancer. But Witte says clinical trials are needed to show that eating foods high in omega-3 fatty acids actually lower risk of aggressive prostate cancer.

The study appears in the April issue of Clinical Cancer Research.

“There is a lot of evidence that omega-3 fatty acids protect against heart disease and other diseases by targeting inflammation — and that may be what is going on here,” Witte says.

Omega-3 and Prostate Cancer
The study by Witte and colleagues from the University of California, San Francisco, included 466 men with aggressive prostate cancer and 478 men without the cancer.

The men were asked to fill out food-frequency questionnaires. Genetic analysis was also performed to identify variants of the Cox-2 gene, which helps regulate inflammation within the body. A certain variant of this gene is also known to increase the chance of developing prostate cancer.

The analysis revealed that men who ate little to no fatty fish and had a specific Cox-2 variant were five times more likely to develop advanced prostate cancer.

But men with the highest intake of omega-3 fatty acids — equivalent to one or more servings of fatty fish a week — had a significantly reduced risk for advanced disease, even when they carried the Cox-2 variant.

“The increase in risk associated with having the Cox-2 variant was essentially reversed in men who ate fish one or more times a week,” Witte says.

Men's Symbol

.S. researchers have moved one step closer to devising a simple urine test for detecting one of the most common types of cancer in men.

The test is designed to distinguish between benign and aggressive forms of prostate cancer, the BBC reported Wednesday.

The study, published in the British journal Nature, links a group of small molecules produced by the body to the aggressive form of the disease.

Researchers hope by testing for the presence of the molecules, it will enable doctors to determine whether the patient needs immediate action, according to the report.

“One of the biggest challenges we face in prostate cancer is determining if the cancer is aggressive,” said lead researcher Professor Arul Chinnaiyan, from the University of Michigan Medical School.

“We end up over-treating our patients because physicians don’t know which tumors will be slow-growing. With this research, we have identified a potential marker for the aggressive tumors,” he added.

Sample analysis

The researchers examined 1,126 molecules produced by the body in a total of 262 samples of tissue, blood or urine.

They pinpointed about 10 molecules - or metabolites - that were more often present in samples taken from patients with advanced cancer.

One metabolite in particular, sarcosine, was often found at elevated levels in samples taken from patients with advanced cancer, or cancer that had spread, but not at all in samples taken from healthy tissue.

In fact, sarcosine was a better indicator of advancing disease than the traditional marker, a protein called prostate specific antigen.

European study encourages standard care in U.S. since 1990s to be adopted

Treating advanced prostate cancer with radiation and hormone-blocking drugs cut the death rate in half in a study of Scandinavian men, researchers report.

In the United States, the combination has been standard care since the 1990s. But in Europe, many doctors have avoided the combo treatment and used hormone drugs alone, thinking the pair would be too harsh for most patients.

“What this study shows is that men with prostate cancer do benefit from more aggressive therapy,” said Dr. Howard Sandler, of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and a spokesman for the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

The Scandinavian researchers tracked 875 men with advanced prostate cancer in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

About half were given hormone-blocking drugs while the other half got the same treatment plus radiation. The drugs block production of testosterone, which feeds cancer cells.

After nearly eight years, 79 men in the hormone only group had died of prostate cancer, compared to 37 in the group that had hormone therapy plus radiation.

“It’s not enough just to put patients on hormones,” said Anders Widmark of Umea University in Sweden, one of the paper’s authors. “To get a dramatic increase in survival, you have to add radiation. This should be the new standard.”

The study was published online Tuesday by the British medical journal, Lancet. It was paid for by various Scandinavian cancer groups, Umea University and the makers of the drugs used in the study, Schering-Plough Corp. (Lupron), and Abbott Laboratories Inc. (Eulexin).

Prostate cancer is the second-most common cancer in men. This year, more than 28,000 men will die from the disease. The good news is that prostate cancer is highly curable if detected early, and recent research studies show a healthy diet and certain vitamins can help prevent the disease.

The best methods of early detection are a digital rectal exam performed by your physician to feel for abnormalities in the prostate gland and a blood test to measure the level of prostate-specific antigen, or PSA — a substance produced by the prostate. A high PSA level or a significant rise in PSA levels over the course of a year might be an indication of prostate cancer.

The American Cancer Society recommends that men 50 and older should get a digital rectal exam and PSA blood test every year to screen for prostate cancer. Blacks and those with a family history of the disease should talk to their doctors about getting screened at an earlier age.

A man’s risk of developing prostate cancer is double if one first-degree relative, such as a father or brother, had prostate cancer and triple if three first-degree relatives had the disease.

In August, the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommended that men 75 and older not be screened for prostate cancer, citing limited benefits of PSA testing. The decision on when to stop getting screened for prostate cancer should be made in consultation with your doctor.

Still, it might be appropriate that men in good health who have a life expectancy of 10 to 15 years continue to get annual screenings.

Watch your diet

In addition to getting regular screenings, watch what you eat to help prevent prostate cancer. Avoid saturated fats and incorporate soy proteins and lycopene-rich foods — such as tomatoes, watermelon and pink grapefruit — into your diet.

Studies show soy and lycopene, a phytochemical, can have a protective effect against prostate cancer. Talk to your doctor about taking vitamins D and E and selenium supplements, which some studies indicate can help prevent the disease. In addition, a drug called finasteride has been shown to reduce a man’s risk for developing prostate cancer by 30 percent.

Local help

Men diagnosed with prostate cancer have access to comprehensive treatment services at The Steeplechase Cancer Center at Somerset Medical Center in Somerville, including radiation seed implant therapy, external beam radiation therapy and surgery.

Treatment standards are shaped by the Prostate Cancer Institute, a multidisciplinary team of medical oncologists, oncologic surgeons, radiation oncologists, radiologists, pathologists, medical physicists, radiation therapists, nutritionists and pastoral care staff, to ensure patients have access to the highest quality care.