This forum is for the discussion of anything to do with Prostate Cancer. There are only four rules:
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I have deleted Beth's last post which specifies the trade name of the Beta Glucan supplements she recommends. It seems likely to me that this post breaches the requirement to avoid advertising on this site.
The three URLs refrenced in Beth's postings have very little or nothing to do with the effect of Beta Glucan on men with prostate cancer.
The first, a study in vitro - which is to say not in human beings and therefore unreliable - which was published in 2000 concludes:
A bioactive beta-glucan from the Maitake mushroom has a cytotoxic effect, presumably through oxidative stress, on prostatic cancer cells in vitro, leading to apoptosis. Potentiation of GD action by vitamin C and the chemosensitizing effect of GD on carmustine may also have clinical implications. Therefore, this unique mushroom polysaccharide MAY have great a potential as an alternative therapeutic modality for prostate cancer.
As Frank says, if Beta Glucan HAD been shown to have potential in men instead of cells in petri dishes, trials would have been running years ago.
The other two references have NOTHING to do with prostate cancer.
This is being left on the Forum as an example of how claims should be investigated before anyone takes a recomendation on the word of someone's aunt from San Francisco.
