BACK TO ARCHIVE

Serving all of  SANTA CRUZ COUNTY

Santa Cruz  PROSTATE CANCER SUPPORT GROUP

May 2005                                           NEWSLETTER

                                                                                                                                                        Howard Waage  (688-0423) -----Editor

Special Event for The May 31^st Meeting:

      Topic: “Getting Back to Intimacy After Prostate Cancer Treatment",

 and will include discussion about sexual intimacy and erectile difficulties.

Our Speaker: Maren Martin is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a psychotherapy practice in Pacific Grove as well as a Certified Sex Therapist and specializes in sex and couple therapy.  She has a special interest in helping cancer survivors have emotional intimacy and fulfilling sexual relationships.

_____________________________________________________ _________________________________

  When:    Tuesday evening, May 31st starting at 7:00 p.m.

                   (The April Steering committee meeting begins at 5:30 p.m., before the regular meeting)

  Where:   This special event will be UPSTAIRS in two-story redwood Education Building behind

                     the Santa Cruz Dominican Hospital.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Please feel free to contact any of the following steering committee members if you would like to volunteer

or if you have any suggestions or questions. 

Tony &  Beverley Calvo  684-0940   Frank Schmetz  438 4781   Bill McDermott 423-8350   Howard Waage 688-0423

      Richard & Tina Koch  761-3577   Julie Batz 724-2701     Lynn Dreeszen 439-8632     Tim Ryan 476-6550

Our website: http://www.scprostate.org Doug Thornton  724-6446 (Webmaster)

….PROSTATE CANCER IN THE NEWS..…

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY PROSTATE CANCER SUPPORT GROUP WILL BEGIN A SUB-GROUP FOR MEN WITH ADVANCED PROSTATE CANCER.

This group will be for men that have been diagnosed with prostate cancer which has spread outside the prostate or who have experienced a recurrence after primary treatment. Typically, these men are receiving hormone blockade, are participating in a clinical trial or are receiving some other form of advanced treatment.

The sub-Group will meet every three months at the Katz Cancer Resource Center of Dominican Hospital. The sub-group will meet on the SECOND MONDAY OF THE MONTH, beginning on JUNE,13,2005, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM. Subsequent meetings will be on MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 AND DECEMBER 12.

The purpose of this group will be to better address the special problems and issues of men with advanced prostate cancer. In addition, at some meetings, we will invite local medical oncologists to discuss their approach and treatments for men with systemic disease.

Men with advanced prostate cancer will continue to be welcomed at the regular monthly meetings on the last Tuesday of the month. Tony Calvo has agreed to coordinate the sub-group. If you have any suggestions or questions, contact Tony at 684-0940.

Page 1

Green Tea Shown to Prevent Prostate Cancer

First Clinical Study Shows 90 Percent Efficacy in Men with Pre-malignant Lesions

April 20, 2005. Anaheim, Calif. – After a year's oral administration of green tea catechins (GTCs), only one man in a group of 32 at high risk for prostate cancer developed the disease, compared to nine out of 30 in a control, according to a team of Italian researchers from the University of Parma and University of Modena and Reggio Emilia led by Saverio Bettuzzi, Ph.D. Their results were reported here today at the 96 th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

"Numerous earlier studies, including ours, have demonstrated that green tea catechins, or pure EGCG (a major component of GTCs), inhibited cancer cell growth in laboratory models," Bettuzzi explained. "We wanted to conduct a clinical trial to find out whether catechins could prevent cancer in men. The answer clearly is yes."

Earlier research demonstrated primarily that green tea catechins were safe for use in humans. Bettuzzi and his colleagues had found that EGCG targets prostate cancer cells specifically for death, without damaging the benign controls. They identified Clusterin, the most important gene involved in apoptosis, or programmed cell death in the prostate, as a possible mediator of catechins action. "EGCG induced death in cancer cells, not normal cells, inducing Clusterin expression" said Bettuzzi.

To gauge susceptibility for prostate cancer among their research subjects, the team of Italian scientists recruited men with high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia – premalignant lesions that presage invasive prostate cancer within one year in nearly a third of cases and for which no treatment was given.

Eligible men were between 45 and 75 years of age. Vegetarians and men consuming green tea or derived products, or those taking anti-oxidants or following anti-androgenic therapy were excluded.

Of the 62 volunteers, 32 received three tablets per day of 200 mg each GTCs; the remainder were given a placebo. Follow-up biopsies were administered after six months and again at one year. Only one case of prostate cancer was diagnosed among those receiving 600 mg daily of GTCs, while nine cases were found in the untreated group. The 30 percent incidence rate among controls is consistent with previous findings, as was the absence of significant side effects or adverse reactions.

The interest in green tea catechins and other polyphenols – antioxidants found in many plants that give some flowers, fruits and vegetables their coloring – derives from traditional Chinese medicine, and the observation of lower cancer rates among Asian populations. Bettuzzi observed that the Mediterranean diet is rich in vegetables, and lower rates of prostate cancer are found in that region, as well.

The 600 mg-per-day dosage of caffeine-free, total catechins (50 percent of which is EGCG) given to participants in the Italian study is one or two times the amount of green tea consumed daily in China, where ten to 20 cups a day is normal. "We still don't know enough about the biological processes leading to prostate cancer," Bettuzzi noted. "The only thing we know for sure is that prostate cancer is diffuse, related to age and more prevalent in the West. Thus, prevention could be the best way to fight it. Although our follow-up will continue for up to five years, a larger, confirmatory study is needed."

Even so, Bettuzzi hints at the exciting prospect of using green tea catechins as a prophylactic against prostate cancer in men believed to be at higher risk, such as the elderly, African-Americans, and those with a family history of prostate cancer.      Source: http://www.psa-rising.com/eatingwell/greentea-prevention05.html

Antioxidant Blood Levels Key to a Gene-Associated Prostate Cancer Risk

For the one quarter of men with this genetic makeup (MnSOD AA), risk of aggressive prostate cancer shoots up 10 fold if they are low on selenium, lycopene and vitamin E, Boston researcher says.

PSA Rising, March 15, 2005. PHILADELPHIA -- Greater levels of selenium, vitamin E and the tomato nutrient lycopene have been shown to reduce prostate cancer in one out of every four Caucasian males -- those who inherit a specific genetic variation that's particularly sensitive to oxidative stress. Conversely, if carriers of this genetic variant have low levels of these vitamins and minerals, their risk of aggressive prostate cancer increases substantially, as great as 10-fold, over their cohorts who maintain higher levels of these nutrients.

Page 2