WESTPORT, CT (Reuters Health) - A report in the October issue of The Journal of Urology provides more evidence that PC-SPES, a phytotherapeutic containing eight different herbs, is active against prostate cancer. The latest findings come from Dr. Aaron E. Katz, of Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, and colleagues.

In efficacy studies involving 69 patients with prostate cancer, Dr. Katz and colleagues found that "the overwhelming majority...experienced a decrease in serum PSA" after taking three 320-mg capsules of PC-SPES daily. Two, 6 and 12 months after treatment, 82%, 78% and 88% of patients had decreased serum PSA levels, respectively.

"Of 22 patients who received PC-SPES for hormone refractory prostate cancer, serum PSA decreased in 90% at 2-month follow-up and remained decreased at 6 months in 74%," Dr. Katz and colleagues report. PC-SPES significantly lowered PSA levels in patients who had previously received no therapy as well as in those treated with radiotherapy, cryotherapy, radical prostatectomy and/or hormone therapy.

The side effect profile was "comparable to estrogen treatment," the authors report, with 42% of patients reporting nipple tenderness, 8% reporting gynecomastia and 7% reporting hot flashes.

PC-SPES is one of the "more exciting herbal therapeutics that are currently being used to treat prostate cancer," the authors write. "Our observation that this agent has a clinical effect on patients with hormone-resistant prostate cancer suggests that estrogenlike activity is not its sole mechanism of action."

(From Reuters Health)