Proscar Promises to Prevent Prostate Cancer
Drug Promises to Prevent Prostate Cancer,
But It May Increase Aggressive Tumors in Some Men

Scientists have discovered the first drug that promises to prevent prostate cancer, but it was also found to increase a more aggressive type of tumor in men. The drug is finasteride, currently sold as a treatment for enlarged prostates under the brand name Proscar and, in a much lower dose, as Propecia for baldness. It is already known to cause sexual side effects, including decreased libido, erectile dysfunction and ejaculation disorder. Now it will likely be prescribed to all men over age 50 as a preventive therapy, even though the daily consumption of 200 mcg of the trace mineral Selenium has been found to work better.

A 1996 clinical trail conducted at the Arizona Cancer Center at University of Arizona, found that people who took 200 mcg of Selenium daily had 63% fewer cases of prostate cancer, 58% fewer cases of colon or rectal cancers, 45% fewer cases of lung cancers and 50% as many deaths overall compared to their counterparts who took placebos. (Biomed Environ Sci. 1997 Sep;10(2-3):227-34)

Men who took Proscar daily for seven years cut their chances of getting prostate cancer by only 25 percent compared with men given a placebo. The results were strong enough that the study of 18,000 men age 55 and older, originally scheduled to run for another year, was stopped in June 2003. "This trial proves prostate cancer, at least in part, is preventable," said Dr. Peter Greenwald, cancer prevention chief at the National Cancer Institute, who participated in the study himself and so far is cancer-free. "It's a huge step forward."

Why Has Selenium Been Ignored?
Because its natural and God holds the patent, there is no significant profit in marketing Selenium. Proscar on the other hand has "extraordinary public health potential," said lead researcher Dr. Ian Thompson of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio. Because 220,000 men in the U.S. are diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 29,000 die every year, drug companies see a booming market.

Proscar works by preventing testosterone from changing into another hormone (DHT) that fuels prostate enlargement and cancer growth. In the study, it worked equally well for men at low risk of cancer, and those at high risk black men and those whose fathers and brothers had the disease. The herb Saw Palmetto works the same way and has been shown to be just as effective in preventing testosterone in DHT as Proscar.

Are the Risks of Proscar Worth the Potential Benefits?
Men who developed prostate cancer while taking Proscar were more likely to have tumors that appear aggressive, what doctors term "high grade." Some 6.4 percent of Proscar patients were diagnosed with those aggressive tumors, compared with 5.1 percent of men given a dummy pill. No one knows if it was a fluke or if Proscar, a hormonal treatment, alters the prostate in a way that favors growth of more aggressive tumors.

The medical importance of the overall cancer reduction isn't clear because of another quirk researchers diagnosed prostate cancer in four times more placebo patients than expected. Many were small, early-stage tumors found only because every study participant received a prostate biopsy even if blood tests for cancer-signaling PSA were normal biopsies that in the real world never would have occurred.

"It looks like Proscar prevented little tiny, insignificant cancers, but did nothing for high-grade cancers or maybe even allowed them to become more common," said Dr. Peter Scardino of New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, who wrote a cautionary editorial accompanying the research. "That doesn't sound like a very good trade-off to me."

The study didn't test whether taking Proscar helped men live longer, added Dr. Herman Kattlove of the American Cancer Society. He predicted a "huge debate" about its usefulness. "If it were free of side effects, it would be another story," he said, citing impotence and loss of libido that were more common among Proscar users. "If it's not going to save your life and it's just going to ruin your sex life, I won't" take it.

Natural vs Synthetic
If you know your options, why would you choose a drug like Proscar as a preventive therapy, when you could almost triple the prevention by taking 200 mcg of the natural trace mineral Selenium? If you are taking the full dose of Vital Formulations’ Peak Advantage Multi daily, you are already getting 200 mcg of Selenium. You are already covered. For added protection, eat lots of tomatoes or take Lycopene. If you have Benign Prostate Hyperplasia, take Saw Palmetto. Nature is still wiser than man.

For more information about Saw Palmetto, click here