Can homeopathic treatment slow prostate cancer growth?

BACKGROUND: Homeopathy is a complementary medicine widely used around the world. Despite extensive use of homeopathy for cancer and other serious conditions with reported success, clinical and laboratory research has been equivocal, and no rigorous research has been done on cancer. In 1999, the US National Cancer Institute evaluated the effects of homeopathic treatment of cancer from a clinic in India and has released a request for protocols to conduct further research into this treatment. Therefore, the authors conducted a series of carefully controlled laboratory studies evaluating the effects of commonly used homeopathic remedies in cell and animal models of prostate cancer. STUDY DESIGN: One hundred male Copenhagen rats were randomly assigned to either treatment or control groups after inoculation with prostate tumor cells. METHODS: Prostate tumor cells DU-145, LNCaP, and MAT-LyLu were exposed to 5 homeopathic remedies. Male Copenhagen rats were injected with MAT-LyLu cells and exposed to the same homeopathic remedies for 5 weeks. In vitro outcomes included tumor cell viability and apoptosis gene expression. In vivo outcomes included tumor incidence, volume, weight, total mortality, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) expression, apoptotic cell death (terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase mediated d-uridine triphosphate nick end labeling), and gene expression (rAPO-multiprobe). RESULTS: There were no effects on cell viability or gene expression in 3 prostate cell lines with any remedies at any exposure time. There was a 23% reduction in tumor incidence (P < .0001), and for animals with tumors, there was a 38% reduction in tumor volume in homeopathy-treated animals versus controls (P < .02). At time of killing, experimental animals with tumors had a 13% lower average tumor weight (P < .05). Tumors in these treated animals showed a 19% increase in apoptotic cell death (P < .05) and reduced PCNA-positive cells. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that selected homeopathic remedies for the present study have no direct cellular anticancer effects but appear to significantly slow the progression of cancer and reduce cancer incidence and mortality in Copenhagen rats injected with MAT-LyLu prostate cancer cells.

Protective effect of a polyherbal preparation, Brahma rasayana against tumor growth and lung metastasis in rat prostate model system.

Rasayanas are a group of herbal formulations and are used to improve health of the body. Recent studies have demonstrated the immunostimulatory and antioxidant activities of some of these rasayanas and their usefulness in tumor regression. The objective of the study is to evaluate Brahma rasayana for the inhibition of tumor development and prevention of metastasis in vivo using Copenhagen rats and MAT-LyLu cell model system. Copenhagen rats injected with MAT-LyLu cells were treated with Brahma rasayana once daily. This treatment was followed from the second day of cell inoculation until the end of the experiment. The study comprises a comparison of survival time, body weight, tumor incidence, tumor size, tumor weight, histopathological examination of the lung metastasis and serum testosterone levels between rasayana treated and control animals. Brahma rasayana treatment resulted in a 25-37% decrease in palpable tumor incidence, a delay of 1-2 weeks in the tumor occurrence, lower mean tumor volumes, by as much as 14-35% and significant reduction in tumor weight and lung metastasis in comparison to untreated controls. The Ayurvedic poly herbal preparation, Brahma rasayana may play a beneficial role in preventing tumor incidence, tumor growth and metastatic spread. These are inexpensive preparations that have little or no adverse side effects with a potential as lead chemopreventive compounds and which might prove useful for the treatment of disorders such as human prostate cancer.