Growth Hormone and Cancer Risk

There are reasons to believe that growth hormone replacement might actually prevent cancer.  Chein and Terry have seen no cases of cancer among their group of more than 800 patients, although these people are in an age group where cancer rates are expected to rise.  Nor has there been a higher than expected rate of occurrence of cancer among European adult patients treated for GH deficiency.  And in the one case study reported by Chein and Terry, multihormone replacement along with growth hormone resulted in a normalizing of the PSA levels of a patient with prostate cancer.

Some of the strongest evidence of a possible protective factor comes from rats that are fed about 40 percent less than the control rats.  Ordinarily growth hormone release declines in old rats the same way it does in humans.  But the old diet-restricted rats had growth hormone levels that were the same as those of young rats that were normally fed.  And, according to the work of William Sonntag and his associates at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the increased growth hormone may account at least in part for why the diet-restricted animals live far longer, have delayed aging, and develop less cancer than rats allowed to eat all they want.  And the life span study of David Khansari and Thomas Gustad at North Dakota State University in Fargo found that low doses of growth hormone in old mice increased their immune function and significantly prolonged their life expectancy.

In animal and human studies, there is a wealth of data showing that growth hormone revives and rejuvenates the immune system, including the cells that recognize and fight cancer cells.  And remember that growth hormone levels are highest just before puberty, when the incidence of cancer is at its lowest.  The rate of cancer rises with age and the same time the amount of growth hormone wanes.

But there are two other points to take into consideration when contemplating growth hormone replacement.  first, the vast majority of men and women die of heart disease, not cancer.  Growth hormone replacement in people who are deficient has been shown to strengthen the heart muscle and function and decrease the risk factors of heart disease.  Second, cancers take years to decades to develop from a single mutated cell into a full-blown tumor.  "It is still an unanswered question whether growth hormone increases the possibility of cancer," says Terry.   "But my feeling is that if you are an older individual and you get 15 to 30 years of living in a more healthful way, you've gained more than the fear of a tumor."

The above excerpt is from Dr. Klatz's book, Grow Young with HGH, pages 289-291.