High dose Vitamin D3

[Guest guest]

Hi robin I have only 5000ui a day but I found a story when a cancer patient

was given 150,000ui a day he was taking 5000ui every hour plus his chemo

treatment chemo he went in to remission after 6 month so the vitamin D must

be doing some thing I found this article ob a study on vitamin D as as a

treatment for cancer all the best Ray

http://www.docguide.com/news/content.nsf/news/8525697700573E1885256BC000587596

Study Shows Benefits of Adding High-Dose Vitamin D to Chemotherapy for

Advanced Prostate Cancer: Presented at ASCO

Calcitriol May Safely Double Effectiveness of Taxotere Treatment

ORLANDO, FL -- May 21, 2002 -- The addition of high-dose calcitriol to

weekly treatment with the chemotherapy agent docetaxel (TaxotereR) appears

to improve the therapeutic response in men with hormone-refractory prostate

cancer without compromising safety, according to results reported at the

38th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

Calcitriol is the active form of vitamin D.

Data from a phase II clinical trial suggest as much as twice the efficacy

with the docetaxel/calcitriol combination than docetaxel alone, as measured

by prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response rate. The study showed that 81

percent of patients treated with the combination regimen cut their PSA

levels by more than half. Studies of docetaxel without calcitriol have

reported a 42 percent PSA response rate overall. PSA is a substance produced

within the prostate gland, and a high PSA level may indicate the presence of

cancer. In patients with advanced prostate cancer, PSA correlates with the

amount of cancer in the body.

" Because there is no standard treatment for hormone-refractory prostate

cancer, new therapeutic strategies are clearly needed, " said Tomasz Beer,

M.D., an oncologist at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Cancer

Institute in Portland, Oregon, and lead investigator of the study.

" Docetaxel used alone has shown promise in treating prostate cancer, and our

new data strongly indicate that the favorable results can be enhanced with

the addition of high-dose vitamin D. "

The study included 37 men with hormone-refractory prostate cancer, or

disease that was progressive despite standard hormonal therapy, including

anti-androgen withdrawal. In addition to PSA response, eight of 15 men with

measurable disease responded with significant reductions of their tumors.

Patients in the study received oral calcitriol, 0.5 mcg/kg, (micrograms) on

the first day of the treatment cycle, followed by an infusion of docetaxel,

36 mg/m2, on the following day. The treatment was repeated weekly for six

weeks of an eight-week cycle until there was evidence of disease progression

or unacceptable toxicity, or until the patient requested to be withdrawn

from the study.

The results of this phase II study are now the basis for a future phase III

study to be conducted at OHSU and other institutions. That randomized study

will evaluate the use of weekly docetaxel versus weekly docetaxel plus

calcitriol in hormone-refractory prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most common malignancy among men and the second

leading cause of cancer death in men in the United States. The American

Cancer Society estimates that in 2002, approximately 189,000 men will be

diagnosed with the disease, and about 32,200 will die of it. Overall,

roughly one in six American men will develop prostate cancer during his

lifetime. If detected early, however, treatment can be highly effective.

Oregon Health & Science University is a health and research university

focused on improving the well-being of people in Oregon and beyond. OHSU

educates health practitioners, bioscientists, high-technology professionals,

and environmental scientists and engineers, and it undertakes the

indispensable functions of patient care, community service and biomedical

research.

To access all OHSU news releases, visit http://www.ohsu.edu/news/

SOURCE: Oregon Health & Science University