The microenvironment of solid tumours is extremely acidic and this condition arises since the precancerous stage. This acidic milieu could therefore provide a useful target for both prophylactic and therapeutic approaches. In TRAMP transgenic mice, an in vivo model of prostate adenocarcinoma (AC), oral administration of alkaline water was devoid of unwanted side effects, and when started from an early age was as effective as NaHCO3 in significantly delaying tumour progression, while when started when prostate tumours were already present, a nonstatistically significant trend in the same direction was detected. These findings indicate that the use of alkalinizing drugs should be considered for chemoprevention and, in association with standard chemotherapy, for treatment of human prostate AC.
Keywords: Alkalinisation; TRAMP mice; chemoprevention; prostate tumour; tumour microenvironment.