LE: Life Extension Foundation Update 2000.09.15

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Date: Fri Sep 15 2000 - 20:14:02 MDT

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LIFE EXTENSION UPDATE SEPTEMBER 15 2000
SEPTEMBER IS PROSTATE CANCER AWARENESS MONTH!

IN THIS ISSUE: LIFE EXTENSION UPDATE EXCLUSIVE: Free PSA improves
prostate cancer diagnosis to 95% sensitivity; PROTOCOLS: Prostate cancer
overview, Prostate cancer adjuvant therapy, Prostate cancer PSA parameter
and heredity factors; FEATURED PRODUCTS OF THE WEEK: Super Green Tea
Extract, PC Spes; BLOOD TESTING: The Cancer Profile

LIFE EXTENSION UPDATE EXCLUSIVE
Free PSA 95%improves prostate cancer diagnosis to 95% sensitivity

The August issue of the journal Urology published the results of a study
demonstrating that the free PSA (prostate specific antigen) test is far
more sensitive than the the PSA test in diagnosing cancer. Prostate
specific antigen is a protein found in the blood secreted by the
epithelial cells of the prostate, including cancer cells. High PSA
levels indicate an abnormal condition of the prostate gland, which can be
benign or malignant. Physicians use specific age ranges for PSA values to
aid in diagnosing cancer. PSA readings that fall between 4 to 10 ng/mL
are diagnostically uncertain and require a painful and expensive biopsy to
confirm malignancy, yet 75% of men with PSAs in this range have benign
biopsies. Several forms of PSA exist. Most is complexed and the minority
is unbound, or free PSA.

Determining PSA density is another method of diagnosing prostate cancer,
but this requires an ultrasound to determine the volume of the prostate by
which the PSA level is then divided.

The study included 773 men ages fifty through seventy-five whose PSA
levels were between 4 and 10 mL and whose diagnosis was confirmed. The
patients then received PSA, free PSA and PSA density tests. Using the
method of evaluating total PSA by age-specific PSA cutoffs missed an
average of forty percent of all cancers in men over 60 years of age. Free
PSA measurements and PSA density provided a 95% detection rate. The
advantage of the free PSA test over PSA density is the unnecessity of an
ultrasound.

Lead study author William J. Catalona, MD, of the Division of Urologic
Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine commented, "PSA is the
best cancer tumor marker in all of medicine, but there is understandable
pressure to improve its accuracy. This study shows that free PSA is the
best available way to improve the accuracy of total PSA tests . . .
Results of this study are significant because they show that free PSA
tests can improve the accuracy of PSA tests and are more sensitive than
age-specific reference ranges. They are as accurate as PSA density tests
in the study, but less costly. Other studies have also shown that free PSA
ratios can provide the bonus of telling patients and physicians how
aggressive the cancer is."

PROTOCOLS

Prostate cancer overview

The Life Extension Foundation has developed an extensive array of
integrated prostate cancer therapies based on published scientific
findings and the clinical experience of practicing oncologists. This
Overview should be read first by the patient and the physician, and then
the appropriate protocol(s) referred to depending upon the stage of the
disease and the therapies being considered.

Unlike most forms of cancer, early-stage prostate cancer is usually
controllable with hormone (testosterone)-blocking therapy. The drugs used
to contain early-stage prostate cancer are FDA-approved, yet only a small
percentage of urologists are using hormone-blocking therapy properly in
treating early-stage prostate cancer patients. The scientific literature
indicates that radical prostatectomy (surgical removal of the prostate)
and external beam radiation therapy fail to produce an acceptable
percentage of long-term, disease-free survival. The severe long-term side
effects of these conventional therapies (surgery and external-beam
radiation) are well documented.

In lieu of radical surgery or external beam radiation, prostate cancer
patients may want to consider the Life Extension Foundation's early-stage
protocols that incorporate combined testosterone, 5-alpha-reductase, and
prolactin inhibition for temporary control of most prostate cancers.
Innovative natural therapies can be implemented upon the initiation of
hormone-blocking drug therapies.

Please see the following protocols regarding the treatment of prostate
cancer.

1. Prostate Cancer: Adjuvant Therapy
2. Prostate Cancer: Early-Stage
3. Prostate Cancer: Late-Stage
4. Prostate Cancer: PC Spes
5. Prostate Cancer: Chemotherapy
6. Prostate Cancer: PSA Parameters and Heredity
7. Prostate Enlargement: Benign Prostate Hypertrophy

http://www.lef.org/cgi-local/welcome.cgi/id=3117/sgroup_id=699/welcome.html

Prostate cancer adjuvant therapy
By Stephen B. Strum, M.D., and Jonathan E. McDermed, Pharm.D

Dr. Strum is on the Life Extension Medical Advisory Board, and Dr.
McDermed is from the Prostate Cancer Research Institute (PCRI) in Los
Angeles, California. Drs. Strum and McDermed are proponents of a holistic
medical strategy that combines peer-reviewed conventional scientific
publications with new findings in the areas of nutrition and supportive
care of the patient. Dr. Strum and his partner, Mark C. Scholz, M.D., have
a medical practice (Healing Touch Oncology) in Marina del Rey, California,
that cares for patients with prostate cancer (PC) or who are at high risk
of having PC.

We have routinely employed natural therapies in our holistic approach to
oncology and internal medicine disorders for almost 30 years. Such
therapies are based on published peer-reviewed literature and not hearsay
from individuals or companies that appear to be in the business of
medicine.

We use the nutritional approaches during the preventive phase in men at
risk for developing PC. We employ the same strategy during the initial use
of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and during the off-phase of ADT for
the purpose of slowing the growth rate of PC as much as possible. In
patients with active PC, we take a more aggressive stance on the dosing of
these agents and also suggest the use of additional agents that appear
promising in their activity against PC. However, it is important to
indicate that the rationale for the use of many of these adjuncts is based
on studies involving human cell lines of PC grown in animal models,
usually mice. Clinical studies in humans have either not been started or
are in progress but are too preliminary to report at this time.

The inhibition of new blood vessel formation to block the growth and
spread of PC is currently under investigation. Androgen deprivation
therapy (ADT) is known to have this antiangiogenesis effect as well as
genistein. Other agents that have an effect on cancer cell invasiveness
include green tea polyphenols. Green and black tea are derived from the
same plant, Camellia sinensis. However, only green tea is rich in the
flavonol group of polyphenols known as catechins. The fermentation process
used in making black tea destroys the biologically active polyphenols of
the fresh leaf. The catechins as a group have significant free radical
scavenging ability and are potent antioxidants.
http://www.lef.org/cgi-local/welcome.cgi/id=3118/sgroup_id=699/welcome.html

Prostate cancer: PSA parameter and heredity factors
By Stephen B. Strum, MD, and Jonathan E McDermed, Pharm.D

Emphasis on the use of routine prostate-specific antigen (PSA) monitoring
starting annually at the age of 40 with PSA velocity and doubling time
determinations as a standard part of PSA reporting will increase the
number of men diagnosed earlier, with a lower tumor burden and cured with
local modalities of treatment (Labrie et al., J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab.,
1995; Labrie et al., Urology, 1996). PSA testing with these enhancements
should start earlier, at age 35, in men with a familial history of PC. In
addition, the use of routine free/total PSA levels should increase our
ability to diagnose PC earlier, since fractionation of PSA allows us to
monitor the malignant-associated portion of PSA called complexed PSA.

As our standard, and ideally routine, approach to monitoring PSA and other
biological expressions of tumor cell activity increases in use, the
percentage of men cured with PC should increase as well. This is borne out
in a recent report in which PC was detected in 22% (73/332) of men 50
years or older whose PSA reading was between 2.6 and 4. All cancers
detected in this setting were clinically localized. This study indicates
that PSA readings greater than 2.6 and less than 4.0 may represent a 22%
risk of PC (Catalona et al., JAMA, 1997). The use of a free PSA test would
help determine which of these men whose PSA readings were greater than 2.6
but less than 4.0 have a high probability of PC versus a low probability
of PC. Such a test could reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies in the
low-risk subset and focus a need for more comprehensive biopsing in the
high-risk subset.
http://www.lef.org/cgi-local/welcome.cgi/id=3119/sgroup_id=699/welcome.html