Dr. Rhonda Patrick on health: what the evidence says · JRE #901

What the evidence says 01 / RECORD

The 86% figure comes from a real 2015 double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial (Cipolla et al., Cancer Prevention Research) of 78 men with rising PSA after radical prostatectomy: 60 mg/day of stabilized sulforaphane for six months was associated with a PSA doubling time of 28.9 months versus 15.5 months on placebo, an 86% relative difference. That trial's pre-specified primary endpoint, a target reduction in the log-PSA slope, was not met; the doubling-time figure was a secondary outcome. A separate, smaller single-arm study using a different sulforaphane dose (200 micromoles/day in 20 men) found a more modest lengthening of PSA doubling time, from 6.1 to 9.6 months, with only one of eight responding participants seeing a substantial PSA decline. A 2023 systematic review of randomized trials of sulforaphane in cancer found roughly 75% of the studies at high risk of bias and concluded the evidence remains preliminary, calling for larger, more rigorous trials before clinical claims are made. The number Patrick cites is accurately drawn from a genuine clinical trial, but it describes a secondary endpoint in one moderate-sized study whose primary endpoint failed, not established proof that sulforaphane treats or reliably slows prostate cancer. (Patrick also states the treatment lasted about a month; the source trial's dosing period was six months.)