Vitamin D May Help in Prostate Cancer

Men dying from prostate cancer may be able to extend their lives, thanks to a potent form of vitamin D developed at Oregon Health & Science University.

Adding the experimental vitamin pill DN-101 to chemotherapy increased the average expectancy to roughly two years.

A two-year survival "is the highest ever seen in a randomized study," said Dr. Bruce Montgomery, a Seattle Cancer Care Alliance prostate cancer expert who was not involved in the research. "It clearly is a big step forward."

Although researchers know DN-101 added at least seven months to the average survival, they can't yet calculate the new median life expectancy, because half the men who took DN-101 in the study are still alive.

Such late-stage cancers kill more than 30,000 U.S. men every year.

The study followed 250 men, randomly assigned to receive either docetaxel alone or with DN-101.

Montgomery said the DN-101 study is part of a push to find safe medicines that make cancers more susceptible to the toxins in chemotherapy drugs.

Courtesy of The Oregonian 5/18/2005