WEDNESDAY, Oct. 17, 2001 (HealthDayNews) -- An over-the-counter dietary supplement containing eight herbs, known by doctors to control prostate cancer, also can cause excessive bleeding if you take too much.
A 62-year-old man battling prostate cancer arrived at a Seattle hospital with uncontrolled bleeding, doctors report in the Oct. 18 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. He had been self-medicating with a supplement called PC-Spes, taking 12 capsules daily, double the recommended dose, for a month. It is the first time doctors report a case of uncontrolled bleeding from the use of PC-Spes.
"He developed spontaneous bleeding from many places," says
co-author Dr. R. Bruce Montgomery, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle. "He had a rapid heartbeat from the large amount of bleeding and low blood pressure. He didn't tell anyone he was taking PC-Spes at all, and he was also taking medication to get rid of his testosterone."
PC-Spes (PC stands for prostate cancer, and "Spes" is the Latin word for hope) was formulated in the early 1990s by Sophie Chen, who is now a research associate professor in New York Medical College's department of medicine, in Valhalla, N.Y. Made of saw palmetto, licorice, reishi, Balkal Skullcap, Rabdosia, dyer's wood, mum and San-qi ginseng, it has estrogen-like effects. While not a cure, the supplement has been studied and is an acknowledged treatment for prostate cancer.
"PC-Spes works to control prostate cancer in those patients whose
cancer is dependent or independent of testosterone, the male hormone," Montgomery says. "Prostate cancer uses testosterone to grow, and the standard practice to treat the disease is either the removal of the testicles or an injection which results in chemical castration. PC-Spes has activity in both these types of patients. It works against prostate cancer because the eight different herbs, it has been shown, have an estrogen-like effect."
The American Cancer Society says prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer in American men after skin cancer. The society estimates 198,100 new cases of the disease will occur in the United States in 2001, and about 31,500 men will die of it. Prostate cancer also is the second leading cause of cancer death in men, exceeded only by lung cancer. African-American men have double the risk of white men for the cancer.
Montgomery says PC-Spes in high doses seems to have an anti-clotting effect. "When we looked at the herbal supplement, it appeared to act like warfarin, which is a blood thinner used in clinical practice for those who have deep vein thrombosis or clots."
The patient was treated with blood and vitamin K, which increases the body's ability to coagulate, Montgomery says. The man recovered and was released.
PC-Spes probably is "very useful" against prostrate cancer, Montgomery says, but patients "should tell their physicians and they should be monitored."
Paradoxically, past studies have linked PC-Spes to blood clots. "Now this report shows it can cause bleeding. Both are significant side effects that need to be watched," Montgomery says.
"Tell patients not to take PC-Spes without consulting a doctor, and tell them not to overdose," says Chen.
Chen says she developed PC-Spes to help her brother-in-law, who had prostate cancer. "It's a Chinese herbal formula, only I combined it with saw palmetto, which is an American herb. Saw palmetto has two functions; it inhibits testosterone, and it is also an anti-inflammatory, which I think will help."
What To Do
If you have prostate cancer and are contemplating taking PC-Spes, make sure you contact your physician.
For more on prostate cancer, see the American Cancer Society. And to learn more about the dietary supplement, try the University of California at San Francisco or PC-Spes.
