I had come across this study a few months ago and consequently started on the red wine (only a glass a day!) without feeling guilty about it. Has it been discussed before in the forum or has there been any other study which would contradict the findings?
Study by Matthew Stenger
Posted: 5/16/2019 12:04:32 PM
Last Updated: 8/13/2019 5:17:07 PM
Cancer-free men who consumed vs did not consume alcohol had a slightly reduced risk of developing lethal prostate cancer.
Among patients with prostate cancer, red wine intake was associated with lower risk of lethal disease.
As reported by Downer et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, findings from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study indicate that moderate alcohol consumption is safe for patients with prostate cancer.
Study Details
The prospective cohort study used data from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study from 1986 to 2012. Analysis of alcohol intake among men at risk of prostate cancer included 47,568 men without cancer and 5,182 men diagnosed with nonmetastatic prostate cancer during follow-up.
Alcohol and Risk
Men without cancer who drank any vs no alcohol had reduced risk of developing lethal prostate cancer during follow-up (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.84, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.71–0.99), with no dose-response relationship being observed. Total alcohol intake among patients with prostate cancer was not associated with progression to lethal prostate cancer (HR = 0.99 for any vs none, 95% CI = 0.57–1.72); red wine intake was associated with a lower risk of progression to lethal disease (HR for any vs none = 0.50, 95% CI = 0.29–0.86). Intake of 15–30 g per day of total alcohol after prostate cancer diagnosis was associated with lower risk of death vs no intake (HR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.50–1.00), as was any vs no red wine intake (HR = 0.74, 95% CI = 0.57–0.97; P trend = .007).
The investigators concluded, “Cancer-free men who consumed alcohol had a slightly lower risk of lethal prostate cancer compared with abstainers. Among men with prostate cancer, red wine was associated with a lower risk of progression to lethal disease. These observed associations merit additional study but provide assurance that moderate alcohol consumption is safe for patients with prostate cancer.”
Mary K. Downer, PhD, SM, of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is the corresponding author for the Journal of Clinical Oncology article.
Disclosure: The study was supported by the Prostate Cancer Foundation and National Cancer Institute grants. For full disclosures of the study authors, visit jco.ascopubs.org.
The content in this post has not been reviewed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Inc. (ASCO®) and does not necessarily reflect the ideas and opinions of ASCO®.
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Thanks TA, I’ve just had a nice Cabernet with a handful of nuts, whole meal bread for lunch and oats for breaky, so hopefully I’m getting the fibre as well.
); red wine intake was associated with a lower risk of progression to lethal disease (HR for any vs none = 0.50, 95% CI = 0.29–0.86)
Does this mean that in 2 groups of 100 people, in the first group 50 of them benefit from red wine compared with none in the 2nd group. If so, they are pretty compelling stats. Dont you agree?
If it were a controlled trial where one randomly chosen group was told to drink red wine and another group was randomly assigned to abstain, it would indeed be impressive -- but it wasn't that.
Instead, it was an analysis of a panel study of health professionals who were either (1) at risk of a diagnosis of prostate cancer, or (2) already diagnosed with prostate cancer. The conclusion you asked about came from Group 2. They are saying that the moderate wine drinkers in Group 2 were half as likely as the abstainers to be later diagnosed with metastatic PC.
So they found an association with moderate red wine drinking, but could not find that it delayed progression. Ask yourself these questions: What else was different about the moderate wine drinkers in the panel vs the abstainers? Did they have less progressed disease at the time of diagnosis? Was their Gleason score lower? Were they younger? Were they more likely to have had radical treatment for their PC? Were they wealthier with better access to healthcare?
The Montreal study that found no association with wine consumption at least attempted to match the drinkers and non-drinkers on variables known to affect risk.
The Dutasteride study looked at men with elevated PSA but no cancer on two biopsies, and looked at whether they later were diagnosed with PC. They found there was no association with alcohol intake. But among men randomly assigned to take dutasteride as a high-grade PC preventative, the preventative effect of dutasteride was negated by high alcohol consumption.
I thought I might tack on this one also since I’m doing radiation. It was done in 2011 which may be a bit dated, but hey, I’ll stick by it! Cheers.
Resveratrol, a compound found commonly in grape skins and red wine, has been shown to have several beneficial effects on human health, including cardiovascular health and stroke prevention. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has discovered that the compound can make prostate tumor cells more susceptible to radiation treatment, increasing the chances of a full recovery from all types of prostate cancer, including aggressive tumors.
"Other studies have noted that resveratrol made tumor cells more susceptible to chemotherapy, and we wanted to see if it had the same effect for radiation therapy," said Michael Nicholl, an assistant professor of surgical oncology in the MU School of Medicine. "We found that when exposed to the compound, the tumor cells were more susceptible to radiation treatment, but that the effect was greater than just treating with both compounds separately."
Prostate tumor cells contain very low levels of two proteins, perforin and granzyme B, which can function together to kill cells. However, both proteins need to be highly "expressed" to kill tumor cells. In his study, when Nicholl introduced resveratrol into the prostate tumor cells, the activity of the two proteins increased greatly. Following radiation treatment, Nicholl found that up to 97 percent of the tumor cells died, which is a much higher percentage than treatment with radiation alone.
"It is critical that both proteins, perforin and granzyme B, are present in order to kill the tumor cells, and we found that the resveratrol helped to increase their activity in prostate tumor cells," Nicholl said. "Following the resveratrol-radiation treatment, we realized that we were able to kill many more tumor cells when compared with treating the tumor with radiation alone. It's important to note that this killed all types of prostate tumor cells, including aggressive tumor cells."
Resveratrol is present in grape skins and red wine and available over-the-counter in many health food sections at grocery stores. However, the dosage needed to have an effect on tumor cells is so great that many people would experience uncomfortable side effects.
"We don't need a large dose at the site of the tumor, but the body processes this compound so efficiently that a person needs to ingest a lot of resveratrol to make sure enough of it ends up at the tumor site. Because of that challenge, we have to look at different delivery methods for this compound to be effective," Nicholl said. "It's very attractive as a therapeutic agent since it is a natural compound and something that most of us have consumed in our lifetimes."
Nicholl said that the next step would be to test the procedure in an animal model before any clinical trials can be initiated. Nicholl's studies were published in the Journal of Andrology and Cancer Science. The early-stage results of this research are promising. If additional studies, including animal studies, are successful within the next few years, MU officials will request authority from the federal government to begin human drug development (this is commonly referred to as the "investigative new drug" status). After this status has been granted, researchers may conduct human clinical trials with the hope of developing new treatments for cancer.
This reminds me of 1980s and 1990s when alcohol studies were coming out about beneficial effects of red wine on heart. Then, there were studies concluding that it was not resvastrol but alcohol itself which is the cause of this beneficial effect.
My opinion is that alcohol does have some beneficial effect not only on heart but also on prostate cancer. There are three reasons for this :
(1) Anti Oxidants such as Resvastrol from grapes
(2) alcohol's own mildly estrogenic effect
(3) indirect effect caused by relaxation and anti anxiety effect when alcohol is consumed in a serene, zen like setting. Relaxation and meditation can boost immune system killing more cancer cells
We already know the downside of excessive alcohol intake...obesity, dementia, falls, family dysfunction, work loss, cirrhosis of liver and so on.
For men up to 2 drinks a day and for women 1 drink a day is reported by many as upper ,safe limit if their liver is good. With Zytiga and alcohol, we need to be more careful.
In moderation, liquor DID NOT prevent me from not getting MPC.
And, I have been drinking for almost 45 years.
Sooo, drink or don't drink, if you have to get MPC, YOU WILL.
This is my considered opinion. Others are free to disagree.
I don't need to justify having an occasional glass of wine or a beer. But I also don't think we should have any illusions about the fact that alcohol is a proven carcinogen. While a link to prostate cancer may not be proven, links to other cancers have been. I think it's even more important for those of us with advanced PCa to not overindulge. The biggest problem for me is that alcohol causes inflamation and if I have too much my pain gets worse every time. Everthing in moderation.
I have lots of experience with overindulging. You recover fairly quickly when you are young, but when you get older the pain begins to exceed the payoff. And I think having PCa makes that even worse, at least it seems to for me. Small amounts, spread out over time are fine for me, but that's about it.
Oh yeah, cool, I drink New England India Pale Ale (NEIPA), and chase it with a shot of bourbon. But, I can tell you, pouring NEIPA over a Macbook Pro laptop is definitely lethal!
Have not had alcohol since 1991. It does not mix with drugs for seizures i take since having brain surgery. However many days a good bottle sounds really good. Had a brother who was a heavy drinker, developed a bad heart followed by leukemia. He made it to 59 years old. Just enough to keep me away from alcohol.
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