Can A Diet Cure Prostate Cancer
While following a nutrient-dense diet high in produce may help reduce the risk of disease progression, it cant take the place of medication or medical treatments. Regular medical care is needed in order to effectively treat the disease and eliminate or reduce its recurrence.
If you decide to follow these diet approaches for better health and outcome on your own, you must also stay on top of prescribed treatments and keep all of your medical appointments.
Nutrition And Dietary Supplements
Preliminary studies suggest that some nutritional supplements may reduce the symptoms of some prostate cancers, or lower your risk of developing it. Ask your team of health care providers about the best ways to use these therapies in your overall treatment plan. Always tell your health care provider about the herbs and supplements you are using or considering using. DO NOT try to treat prostate cancer with supplements on your own.
Follow these tips to reduce your risk of developing prostate cancer:
- Eat antioxidant foods, including fruits and vegetables .
- Include more cruciferous vegetables in your diet. One preliminary study found men who eat three or more servings a week reduced their chance of getting prostate cancer. Another study found that men who ate 28 or more servings of all kinds of vegetables per week were 35% less likely to develop prostate cancer than men who had fewer than 14 servings per week. These foods also seem to kill cancer cells in test tube studies.
- Eat more fish. Some studies show men who regularly eat fish have a lower risk of prostate cancer than those who do not eat as much fish.
- DO NOT eat foods high in saturated fat. High-fat diets may raise your risk of prostate cancer.
- Stay at a healthy weight, and exercise regularly.
These nutrients may have cancer-fighting properties:
How To Add More Green Tea To Your Diet
If you like the taste of green tea, start by drinking a cup each morning in place of your regular coffee.
If you prefer to skip caffeine, try a decaffeinated version. If you dont like warm tea, try cooling it in your refrigerator and adding ice for a refreshing beverage.
If you arent a fan of the taste, try using cooled green tea as the liquid in homemade smoothies, or adding green tea powder.
Summary
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Causes Of Advanced Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK. It is more common over the age 65. Although it can happen at a younger age it is uncommon under 50. People who have a prostate include men, transwomen and people assigned male at birth. If you are a trans woman and have had genital gender affirming surgery as part of your transition, you still have a prostate. Trans men do not have a prostate. It is important to talk to your GP or nurse if you are worried about prostate cancer or have symptoms.
We have more information about the risk factors of prostate cancer.
Symptoms Of Prostate Cancer
Once a tumor causes your prostate gland to swell, or once cancer spreads beyond your prostate, you may have symptoms including:
- The need to pee often, especially at night
- Trouble starting or stopping a stream of urine
- A weak stream or one that starts and stops
- Leaking pee when you laugh or cough
- Not being able to pee standing up
- Pain or burning when you pee
- Blood in your pee or
- Pressure or pain in your rectum
- Pain or stiffness in your lower back, hips, pelvis, or thighs
- New trouble getting an erection
These arenât symptoms of the cancer itself. They happen because the cancer growth is blocking your prostate.
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What Is The Treatment For Advanced Prostate Cancer
No matter where prostate cancer spreads, its still treated as prostate cancer. Its harder to treat when it reaches an advanced stage.
Treatment for advanced prostate cancer involves targeted and systemic therapies. Most men need a combination of treatments and they may have to be adjusted from time to time.
What Is Advanced Prostate Cancer
When prostate cancer spreads beyond the prostate or returns after treatment, it is often called advanced prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer is often grouped into four stages, with stages III and IV being more advanced prostate cancer.
- Early Stage | Stages I & II: The tumor has not spread beyond the prostate.
- Locally Advanced | Stage III: Cancer has spread outside the prostate but only to nearby tissues.
- Advanced | Stage IV: Cancer has spread outside the prostate to other parts such as the lymph nodes, bones, liver or lungs.
When an early stage prostate cancer is found, it may be treated or placed on surveillance . Advanced prostate cancer is not curable, but there are many ways to treat it. Treatment can help slow advanced prostate cancer progression.
There are several types of advanced prostate cancer, including:
Biochemical Recurrence
With biochemical recurrence, the prostate-specific antigen level has risen after treatment using surgery or radiation, with no other sign of cancer.
Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
Non-Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer that no longer responds to hormone treatment and is only found in the prostate. This is found by a rise in the PSA level, while the testosterone level stays low. Imaging tests do not show signs the cancer has spread.
Metastatic Prostate Cancer
- Lymph nodes outside the pelvis
- Other organs, such as liver or lungs
Metastatic Hormone-Sensitive Prostate Cancer
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Drugs To Treat Cancer Spread To Bone
If prostate cancer spreads to other parts of the body, it almost always goes to the bones first. These areas of cancer spread can cause pain and weak bones that might break. Medicines that can help strengthen the bones and lower the chance of fracture are bisphosphonates and denosumab. Sometimes, radiation, radiopharmaceuticals, or pain medicines are given for pain control.
Side effects of bone medicines
A serious side effect of bisphosphonates and denosumab is damage to the jaw, also called osteonecrosis of the jaw . Most people will need to get approval from their dentist before starting one of these drugs.
Trying New Potential Treatments
You may also want to talk to your doctor about taking part in a clinical trial. These are studies that test treatments to see if theyâre safe and if they work. They might be new drugs or a mix of treatments that havenât been used together before. You could also be part of the âcontrolâ group and not get the new treatment at all. Clinical trials offer you early access to brand new treatments, but itâs also important to remember that they may not work. Youâll want to talk with your doctor to make sure you understand the pros and cons of a research study before you join one. To find clinical trials, ask your doctor or search the National Institutes of Health database at www.clinicaltrials.gov.
At some point, your treatment may stop working. If that happens, you can still get care to ease symptoms like nausea, pain, and tiredness. Even though it may not cure your cancer, the goal is to make you feel better.
Show Sources
American Cancer Society: âHormone therapy for prostate cancer,ââPreventing and treating prostate cancer spread to bones,ââVaccine treatment for prostate cancer,ââWhat is metastatic cancer?ââWhen Cancer Doesnât Go Away,â âUnderstanding Advanced and Metastatic Cancer,â âWhatâs New in Prostate Cancer Research?â
Prostate Cancer UK: âWhat is locally advanced prostate cancer?â
ClinicalTrials.gov: âLearn About Clinical Studies.â
National Cancer Institute: âCancer Vaccines.â
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Energy Consumption And Prostate Cancer
Total energy consumption may be another important factor in the development of prostate cancer. Excessive caloric intake, regardless of its source, may lead to obesity, which correlates with an increased risk of prostate cancer.
Mukherjee et al demonstrated that in castrated and noncastrated mice, regardless of castration , all of the groups in which energy intake was restricted developed cancers that were smaller and slower growing, had decreased microvessel density, and had a decreased cell-proliferation index. In this study, cancer cells from the Dunning R3327-H and from LNCaP were transplanted into severe combined immunodeficiency mice. Diet was not restricted in one group. A second group was castrated and subdivided into 2 subgroupsone with an energy-intake restriction of 20% and one with a restriction of 40%. Finally, another group was not castrated but had caloric restriction.
On the basis of the results of a transgenic mouse model, Huffman et al concluded that the ability of caloric restriction to inhibit cancer development and progression is partially mediated by changes in energy balance, body mass, and body composition rather than just caloric intake. This implies that the risk of developing prostate cancer depends more on excess caloric retention, which leads to obesity, rather than just excessive caloric consumption.
How To Adjust To The Dietary Needs Of The Person With Prostate Cancer
While these general recommendations ensure a healthy diet, you can play with which foods you choose and how you prepare them so that your meals are appealing and flavorful while also meeting your dietary needs.
Curb weight loss. If youre losing your appetite and losing weight, think again about what youre cooking and how youre preparing food. Experiment with seasoning foods differently so they taste better, or adding sauces and herbs to mask certain flavors. And cook with higher-calorie ingredients that dont require eating large portions to meet caloric needs.
Manage fiber intake for diarrhea relief. Loose stools, bleeding from the rectum, and loss of control over bowel movements happen to some men after getting external beam radiation treatments for prostate cancer. Several foods can help if this happens to you. Choose fiber-rich foods such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. The Prostate Cancer Foundation says its a bit of a balancing act when it comes to fiber, but recommends avoiding foods that might irritate your stomach while trying to keep up your consumption of fiber-rich foods to avoid getting constipated.
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Can I Check For Prostate Cancer At Home
It is strongly advised under any circumstances not to self-examine for prostate cancer at home either by yourself or with a partner. Not only does it take a skilled professional to assess how the prostate feels to make an accurate determination of overall prostate health, self-examinations have the potential to cause injury.
âSince the prostate is an internal gland, itâs extremely important that only licensed medical professionals conduct the exam. At-home self-exams should not be administered in order to avoid injury or self-harm. Regular screening is important for prostate cancer, as the disease often does not present symptoms until it is too late. Talk to your doctor about making sure you receive a regular DRE check-up at each visit.â
While actually screening yourself for prostate cancer at home is ill advised, you can still monitor your risk factors for prostate cancer between yearly check-ups, like practicing a healthy diet and exercising regularly.
How Is Prostate Cancer Diagnosed
Prostate cancer is diagnosed with a biopsy of the prostate. A biopsy is usually done if symptoms or a screening raises concern. A prostate cancer screening is a test your doctor uses to look for the disease before you have symptoms. There are two screening tests available: a digital rectal exam and a prostate-specific antigen test. You and your doctor will decide if you need a screening. However, these tests can only tell your doctor whether or not your prostate is healthy. Abnormal test results dont always mean you have cancer. How often you should be screened depends on your age and your personal risk factors.
During a DRE, your doctor will insert his or her gloved, lubricated finger a few inches into your rectum to feel your prostate gland. A normal prostate feels firm. If there are hard spots on the prostate, your doctor may suggest additional testing to check for prostate cancer.
During a PSA test, you will get a blood test. A blood test involves inserting a small needle into a vein in your arm to take a sample of blood. The test measures the level of PSA in your blood. Men who have prostate cancer may have a higher level of PSA in their blood. However, a PSA level can also be high because of less serious causes, such as infection or an enlarged prostate.
If your screening test results are abnormal, your doctor may recommend additional other tests to check for cancer. Those tests may include:
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Monitoring And Pharmacologic Therapy
Ordinarily, in patients in whom only a single focus of PIN, particularly HGPIN, has been identified, therapy may not be necessary. In patients with multiple areas of HGPIN or ASAP on the initial biopsy or on subsequent biopsies, therapy may be considered, as the risk of cancer in these patients is 15 times that in patients without these entities. Prostate cancerprevention studies indicate that 5-alpha reductase inhibitors, antiandrogens, and selective estrogen receptor modulators are usually not effective in eliminating HGPIN and ASAP,. .
Things You Cant Change: Age Race And Genes
Prostate cancer is primarily a disease of aging. As you get older, your chances of developing prostate cancer increase. Race and genetics also play a significant role. If you are African American, your chances of developing prostate cancer are double those of white American men. If your father, brother or multiple blood relatives had prostate cancer, you are more likely to get it, too.
Preventing prostate cancer might be difficult if you have these risk factors, but screening early and often can help ensure that if you do get cancer, its diagnosed and treated as soon as possible.
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Diet And Prostate Cancer
After a diagnosis of cancer, people often look at changing their diet. You should try to follow a healthy diet. This is important for your general health as well as helping you recover from cancer. It can also help you stay at a healthy weight and lower your risk of developing other conditions.
There isnt any strong evidence that you should eat or avoid particular foods. There is research looking into how diet can affect cancer.
Treatment for prostate cancer can cause problems with your diet, such as diarrhoea after radiotherapy. And some men find it difficult to maintain a healthy weight, they might be over or under weight.
Your doctor can refer you to a dietitian if you have problems.
Diet Insulin And Prostate Cancer
A glycemic index has been developed for persons with diabetes, so that they can take advantage of the small amounts of insulin they may produce. This index ranks carbohydrates in different foods on a scale of 0-100, depending on how much those foods increase blood sugar levels after consumption. The consumption of low-glycemic foods lowers blood sugar levels and decreases insulin production. According to this theory, low levels of insulin growth factor would prevent cancer cells from growing as rapidly.
In the 1920s, Ohsawa popularized the concept of a macrobiotic diet, which comprises foods with a very low glycemic index. This stringent diet consists primarily of whole grains and vegetables. Even most fruits are excluded. In contrast, the diabetic diet restricts only those foods with the highest glycemic index, such as the following:
The renewed focus on the role of insulin in preventing or slowing the progression of prostate cancer and other cancers is exemplified by the interest in using metformin for that purpose. Nevertheless, while the Diabetes Prevention Program trial demonstrated that metformin has the ability to prevent type 2 diabetes, an underappreciated finding of that trial was the profound reduction in diabetes risk produced by lifestyle changes . In fact, lifestyle changes proved significantly more effective than metformin for diabetes prevention . Once again, this illustrates the value of an integrated approach to health promotion and disease prevention.
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Diet Tips For Prostate Health
How Fast Does Prostate Cancer Spread To The Bones
Early detection can catch prostate cancer even before there are any symptoms. Some types of prostate cancer grow very slowly.
There are four main stages of prostate cancer. Within each stage, the cancer is graded based on factors like the size of tumor, prostate-specific antigen level, and other clinical signs.
If the cancer has spread to the bones, its considered to be the most advanced, or stage 4.
Newer lab tests look at the genes inside cancer cells. This can provide more information on how quickly the prostate cancer may progress.
Theres also a grading system known as the Gleason system, which assigns the cancer into a grade group based on how closely it resembles normal tissue.
During the biopsy to diagnose prostate cancer, the cells are closely examined. The more abnormal cells that are in the biopsy sample, the higher the Gleason score and grade group.
When more abnormal cells are present, the cancer is more likely to spread quickly.
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