Researchers are recruiting cigarette smokers for a pilot study to evaluate the role of tomato lycopene in reducing oxidative stress, a factor leading to lung cancer.
Previous studies have shown the association between increased consumption of tomato products rich in lycopene and a decreased risk of lung cancer. It is thought that lycopene may play a protective role and may be responsible for the lower lung cancer risk in people that consume a lot of tomato products.
Principal investigator of the new study, oncologist Dr Omer Kucuk of Karmanos Cancer Institute, noted that dietary intake of beta carotene appears to decrease lung cancer risk while supplementation with high dose beta carotene increases risk in smokers. This has also been noted by the recent EVM report in the UK, which suggested limits of 7mg daily supplement intake.
"To avoid a similar paradoxical increase in lung cancer in individuals taking lycopene supplements, small pilot studies investigating lycopene-tobacco interaction are warranted," said Dr Kucuk.
"This new pilot study will allow us to determine the effect of lycopene supplementation on oxidative stress, and on biomarkers of cell proliferation and DNA damage in smokers who take 15mg of a lycopene supplement," he added.
The supplement being used in the study, the tomato extract LYC-O-MATO, is manufactured by Israel firm LycoRed Natural Products Industries and will be supplied by Healthy Origins, a Pittsburgh, US-based manufacturer of specialty supplements.