Superfoods Study Keeps More Men on Active Surveillance

Dietary supplement Pomi-T seems to lower biomarker levels associated with prostate cancer, while delaying the time between diagnosis and active treatment.

A U.K.-based study involving 203 participants found that men with early-stage prostate cancer who took Pomi-T, which contains pomegranate, green tea, turmeric and broccoli, saw their prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels decrease 63 percent when compared with men who took a placebo. The median age of participants in the trial was 74.

Most of the participants were on active surveillance for prostate cancer, but some had been treated for the disease and had experienced a PSA increase.

Robert Thomas, a consulting oncologist at Cambridge University Hospitals and lead researcher for the six-month study, considered the study a success.

Participants in the Pomi-T group were able to remain on active surveillance longer than men in the placebo group, something Thomas calls “particularly exciting,” considering one alternative, hormone therapy, can have uncomfortable side effects. “In the early stages, men were not taking any other treatments—so it is easier to attribute the effect on the cancer to the actual Pomi-T,” Thomas says.

The next step for the research team will be to organize a study of men who are at high risk of relapse and those with metastatic disease who are on hormone therapy. Pharmaceutical companies have also offered to sponsor more research.

“We will also be looking eventually at individuals with other slow-growing tumors, which have risen from other parts of the body, including breast, bowel, bladder and ovary,” Thomas says.