Antioxidants and Phytotherapy

This chapter discusses several biologically based therapies relevant to prostate cancer and highlights the relevant biology and epidemiology pertaining to these approaches. Patients with chronic diseases are increasingly seeking alternative medicine therapies. The “biologically based treatments” category of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) includes natural and biologically based practices, interventions, and products, many of which overlap with conventional medicine's use of dietary supplements. Antioxidants represent one of the most common supplement classes ingested by prostate cancer patients. Widely used antioxidants include vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, and plant polyphenols, such as those from green tea, grapeseed, and pine bark. There is a growing body of scientific and clinical work supporting the use of these compounds by patients with cancer and other diseases. While selected herbal products have demonstrated impressive therapeutic activity in tissue culture and animal models, with few exceptions clinical trial documentation of activity is less than impressive. An additional problem of great concern is that the commercially available herbal products vary widely in their quality.