Prostate Cancer Integrative Oncology
Integrative treatment of prostate cancer is primarily focused to reduce side effects of external radiation therapy as it has late side effects that appear long after the end of radiation therapy. The most frequent are digestive (constipation and / or haemorrhages) and urinary (frequent desire to urinate). It is possible to eradicate subsequent residual radioactivity with oral antioxidants and intravenous vitamin C at high doses, thus avoiding the late side effects of external radiation therapy.
In cases that require chemotherapy treatment, the objective of the integrative treatment is to diminish the side effects in order to have better tolerance, allowing chemotherapy cycles to be completed without interruption.
It is necessary to control the immunity with white blood cell count test, since if the count is less than 3000, chemotherapy is postponed until it reaches these levels. On the other hand, the immune system is important in the control of cancer growth and once the chemotherapy cycles have finished it is necessary to recover the normal values of white blood cells in the shorter possible time.
There are Chinese Herbal formulas that boost the immune system. Intravenous vitamin C also helps to strength the immune system. Side effects such as nausea, vomiting, fatigue can improve with Chinese Herbal formulas addressed to strengthen the digestive system in conjunction with acupuncture.
The diet plays a very important role to remove toxicity of the treatments and improve the quality of life.
On the other hand, we also have specific Chinese herbal formulas to prevent recurrences in prostate cancer that are used together with hormone therapy in hospitals in China with very good results. Several studies with the Chinese plant Salvia miltiorrhiza Radix have demonstrated its anticancer effect in prostate cancer:
- Acetonitrile extract of Salvia miltiorrhiza Radix exhibits growth-inhibitory effects on prostate cancer cells through the induction of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Lee J, Choi BY, Keum YS. Oncol Lett. 2017 May;13(5):2921-2928. doi: 10.3892/ol.2017.5820. Epub 2017 Mar 7
- Inhibition of proliferation of prostate cancer cell line DU-145 in vitro and in vivo using Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge. Bae WJ, Choi JB, Kim KS, Syn Ha U, Hong SH, Lee JY, Hwang TK, Hwang SY, Wang ZP, Kim SW. Chin J Integr Med. 2017 Mar 23. doi: 10.1007/s11655-017-280
