Not Hair Loss News – Study Suggests Soy Doesn’t Help Fight Prostate Cancer Recurrence
Snippet from the article:
Soy supplements don’t prevent a recurrence of prostate cancer after surgical removal of the prostate, a new small study finds. Many men with prostate cancer try soy products, but there is no hard evidence that they thwart a return of the disease, the researchers said.
“If one eats soy every day after surgery for prostate cancer, one does not reduce the risk of recurrence,” said the study’s lead researcher, Dr. Maarten Bosland, a professor of pathology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
“A lot of men think that soy might be beneficial, but this study shows that it’s not,” he said. On the other hand, soy posed no adverse side effects. “It’s safe to take soy, but you won’t benefit from it for your prostate cancer,” Bosland added. All of the men studied had an increased risk of having cancer recur because the surgery — called a radical prostatectomy — hadn’t removed all the cancerous cells, Bosland noted.
Read the rest — Soy Won’t Prevent Prostate Cancer’s Return: Study
The study was published in the July 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, and was the first human study that tested soy supplementation’s effect on prostate cancer recurrence.
I don’t like how they just say “Soy” in the headline. We know now that a supplement’s effects and the actual source are two majorly significant things. There was also an article on fish oil supplements increasing aggressive prostate cancer risk!
Interestingly the study has its detractors amongst oncologists as well. Starting a soy protein supplement immediately after surgery is unlikely to show benefits but in cultures where high fermented soy intake exists prostate cancer levels are significantly lower. So if there is an effect it is likely to be from fermented products not soy protein shakes and the use would be as a pre-cancer preventative, not a cure.