Hi Mike.  I stopped chondroitin a couple of years ago when I read a study
that implicated it as a possibility for metastatic PC.  I can't recall much.
Study had something to do with finding chondroitin associated with
metastatic cells.  Just to be on the safe side I now use only glucosamine
without chondroitin.  It's harder to find, though.

*I read somewhere a few years ago that the use of chondroitin could
cause
*prostate cancer to grow.  My arthritis is getting worse and I would
like
*to start taking glucosimine-chondroitin.  I had seed implants about
five
*years ago and my PSA now hovers around 3.  If there is any residual
*cancer left, I don't want to cause it to grow.
*

How 'bout doctors? Any research you all have read about this? I take
an arthritis formula which contains this and don't really want cancer
to pop back up anywhere. Thanks for anything you can mention!

Al
Please be quiet if replying via email,
flames will be deleted promptly.
I won't even read the whole message...

Hi Mike...maybe this article by Dr. Myers, or its predecessor article,
is what you are remembering...Best wishes and good health, Ron

The Prostate Forum
Volume 4 Number 8
August 1999, p.7, written and published February, 2000.
Chondroitin Sulfate and Glucosamine
Charles E. Myers, Jr., MD

In the June, 1999, issue of this newsletter, we described recent
publications suggesting that chondroitin sulfate might pose a risk to
men with prostate cancer. Chondroitin sulfate helps with joint pain
because it forms a complex with a protein called versican found in
joint cartilage. Prostate cancer cells produce versican also and the
greater the amount of chondroitin sulfate attached to this protein,
the more aggressively the cancer can spread throughout the body. For
this reason, I do not think that the risk is worth it.

After we published this commentary, many patients called and asked
about glucosamine, the other substance frequently added to chondroitin
sulfate for the treatment of joint problems. I can find no published
evidence indicating any risk associated with glucosamine and I think
there is no reason for you to be concerned about dangers associated
with it.

References:
C. Ricciardelli, et al. "Elevated Levels of Peritumoral Chondroitin
Sulfate Are Predictive of Poor Prognosis in Patients Treated by
Radical Prostatectomy for Early-Stage Prostate Cancer" Cancer Research
59(10): 2324-2328, 1999.
C. Ricciardelli, et al. "Elevated Levels of Versican, But Not Decorin,
Predict Disease Progress-ion in Early-Stage Prostate Can-cer" Clinical
Cancer Research 4(4): 963-971, 1998.
Y. Zhang, et al. "Promotion of Chondrocyte Proliferation by Versican
Mediated by G1 Domain and EGF-Like Motifs" Journal of Cellular
Biochemistry 73(4): 445-457, 1999.