I was diagnosed with prostate cancer two years ago. My psa numbers have been in the 3-4 range since my last biopsy. That biopsy showed 3/3 6 Gleason score on four of the 16 needles with each needle containing 10 percent. My doctor when I went over my habits with him and told him I was doing barbell training and that I took some of my protein via whey supplements. He told me I needed to avoid all milk fats and protein as they could cause a more rapid growth of the cancer cells. I couldn’t find any references to this searching documents on line and wanted to know what the good doctors thoughts on that are. I was hoping to not have to wait until the July seminar to ask the question. Thank you
We aren’t aware of direct evidence on this ourselves, but would need to do a more extensive dig into the literature too.
I would be curious if your doctor is even able to provide it.
I asked for some additional information and/or material to read. I was told it was common knowledge in their urology oncology department and he didn’t have the time to chase down references for me. I was told to do ligature searches on line. I thanked him for his time and told him not to bother schedule any further follow up appointments as he is obviously to busy. I guess I’ve been though enough in my life to not take getting patted on the head and sent home very well. Some doctors are truly special people and dedicated to helping people. Others are just asses in white coat. Every profession has then from waiters to surgeons. They’re unavoidable sometimes.
Indeed. I doubt he’s used to being asked specifically about this, but an appeal to “common knowledge” is inadequate.
As a 50-ish year old guy with a family history of prostate cancer, I think about whey and prostate cancer risk too.
Don’t be afraid of diving into literature especially by doing Google searches that include the “@nih.gov” string. This will search papers and other info at nih.gov. One thing I keep in mind when trying to read these academic sources is that a bunch are really poorly written and I just kind of move on from those quickly.
Specific to your question, I found some results that seem interesting.
If you wanted to switch to a soy-protein isolate, it seems like this double blind study with 160 participants found no difference in recurrence between patients consuming 20g of soy protein isolate per day vs placebo: Effect of Soy Protein Isolate Supplementation on Biochemical Recurrence of Prostate Cancer After Radical Prostatectomy: A Randomized Trial - PMC I wish there was a similar study with whey!
And to borrow a word from the BBM guys, it looks like maybe there is some nuance in milk protein and prostate cancer recurrence. There is a study that looked at non-metastatic prostate cancer patients and followed up using a food frequency questionnaire (which isn’t awesome for study purposes). But from that information, it looks like whole milk has an association with prostate cancer recurrence but that there is a connection to BMI. The results summary says that “No association was seen in men with BMI <27 kg/m2 . Low-fat milk and other dairy foods were not associated with recurrence.” Study link: Milk and other dairy foods in relation to prostate cancer recurrence: Data from the cancer of the prostate strategic urologic research endeavor (CaPSURE™) - PubMed
Here is another similar study that concludes “With the exception of whole milk, our results suggest that milk and dairy intake after a prostate cancer diagnosis is not associated with an increased risk of lethal prostate cancer.” Study link: Milk and dairy consumption among men with prostate cancer and risk of metastases and prostate cancer death - PMC
Stay strong!