White button mushroom powder——a new product for the treatment of Biochemically Recurrent Prostate Cancer

In United States, more and more people are died of adenocarcinoma of the prostate. According to reliable statistics, about 50,000 patients with prostate cancer show the symptom of prostate-specific antigen(PSA) which means patients will suffer from the disease again. Recently, a new clinical trial showed that white button mushroom (WBM) powder will probably be a new product for the treament of Biochemically Recurrent Prostate Cancer. Przemyslaw Twardowski and Shiuan Chen from City of Hope National Medical Center did this clinical trial about whether mushroom powder will work for the biochemically recurrent prostate cancer. They conducted this study in 36 patients(average age:68) whose PSA levels rise continuely. These 36 patients were divided into 6 groups, and no patient underwent the dose-limiting toxicity. The results showed that therapy with WBM decreased the immunosuppressive factors. And this lead to the decrease of PSA levels and modulattion of the biology of biochemically recurrent prostate cancer.

However, this clinical trial is the begining, more work is to be done in the future such as finding the compound from WBM which has the anti–prostate cancer activity, and the development of a placebo-controlled clinical trial in patients with early biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer.

(CR:Cancer Volume 121, Issue 17, pages 2942–2950, September 1, 2015
A phase I trial of mushroom powder in patients with biochemically recurrent prostate cancer: Roles of cytokines and myeloid-derived suppressor cells for Agaricus bisporus–induced prostate-specific antigen responses)