Vitamin E Found to Reduce Prostate Tumor Regrowth

Survival rates of the world's most common cancer might soon be increased with a new vitamin E treatment that could significantly reduce tumor regrowth.

Queensland University of Technology (QUT; Brisbane, Australia) prostate cancer researchers are helping in the fight against a disease that kills 3,000 Australian men a year. Dr. Patrick Ling, whose research will be a centerpiece of the new US$354 million Translational Research Institute (TRI) when it opens in Brisbane, Australia, is leading a team of researchers who have identified a specific constituent of vitamin E, known as tocotrienol (T3), which can inhibit the growth of prostate tumors.

Construction of TRI officially began October 19, 2010, at the Princess Alexandra Hospital. The facility brings together some of Queensland's best medical researchers from four leading Australian research facilities to transform their research into accessible and potentially life-saving health treatments.

Dr Ling's research has been funded by Davos Life Science (Singapore), who recently awarded him an additional $128,000 to undertake a one-year study of the long-term effectiveness of T3 to prevent the recurrence of treated prostate cancer tumors.

Dr Ling reported that existing chemotherapy and hormonal therapy treatment of prostate cancer was inadequate because it failed to kill off the prostate cancer stem cells (CSCs) which were believed to be responsible for the regrowth of tumors. However, the research team have discovered a particular form of T3, called gamma-tocotrienol (gamma-T3), can successfully kill off the prostate cancer CSCs. "Currently there is no effective treatment for metastatic prostate cancer, because it grows back after conventional therapies in more than 70% of cases,” he said. "But with gamma-T3, QUT researchers have found a better way to treat prostate cancer, which has the potential to inhibit recurrence of the disease.”

Dr Ling stated that in animal trials, gamma-T3 completely inhibited tumor formation in more than 70% of the mice implanted with prostate cancer cells and fed the vitamin E constituent in water. In the remaining cases, tumor regrowth was considerably reduced, while tumors reformed in 100% of the control group.

The findings were published online July 8, 2010, in the International Journal of Cancer. The next stage of Dr Ling's study has begun and it will determine the long-term effectiveness of the gamma-T3 treatment, with plans to proceed to clinical trials in the future. "Previous clinical trials using another vitamin E constituent to inhibit prostate cancer development were unsuccessful, but these trials did not use the vitamin E constituent gamma-T3,” he said. "Other research has found gamma-T3 is also effective in suppressing other types of cancer, including breast, colon, liver, and gastric.”

Dr. Ling noted that while not all vitamin E preparations had the active constituent, natural vitamin E obtained from palm oil was rich in gamma-T3.

Davos Life Science produces gamma-T3 from sustainable palm plantations.

Related Links:
Queensland University of Technology
Davos Life Science