Study questions lycopene for prostate health
may not offer protection from prostate cancer, says a new study
that seems at odds with the majority of the literature.
There has been considerable attention to the health benefits of lycopene in the last few years.
The antioxidant carotenoid, which is responsible for giving tomatoes their red colour, has been studied for its potential to reduce the risk of certain types of cancers.
Within the last 12 months, researchers from India reported that lycopene could protect against the development of prostate cancer - a finding in keeping with earlier epidemiological evidence that tomato-based foods can help men maintain a healthy prostate ( Urological Oncology: Seminars and Original Investigations , Vol. 23, pp. 383-385).
One epidemiological study found that men eating four to five tomato-based dishes per week were 25 per cent less likely to develop prostate cancer compared to men eating tomatoes only rarely.
Such findings are boosting the lycopene market, with growth rates forecast at over 100 per cent by Frost and Sullivan, albeit from a low base of around €27m ($34m) in 2003.
A new study, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, reports however that the carotenoid may not offer protection for prostates, based on a a multi-centre study case-control study including 692 prostate cancer cases, and 844 randomly selected, matched controls.
Lead author Ulrike Peters from the University of Washington reports that there were no associations observed between blood lycopene levels and total prostate cancer risk.
Beta-carotene was found to be associated with a 67 per cent increased risk of aggressive prostate cancer, while other carotenoids were not associated with risk.
"Consistent with other recent publications, these results suggest that lycopene or tomato-based regimens will not be effective for prostate cancer prevention," concluded the researcher.
The FDA ruled in November 2005 that tomato and tomato sauce products could make heavily qualified health claims on their packaging about their ability to reduce the risk of prostate, gastric, ovarian and pancreatic cancers - and these are couched in very negative terms, "unlikely", "highly uncertain", and "highly unlikely".
Source: Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention 1 May 2007, Volume 16, Pages 962-968,.
doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-06-0861 "Serum Lycopene, Other Carotenoids, and Prostate Cancer Risk: a Nested Case-Control Study in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial" Authors: U. Peters, M.F. Leitzmann, N. Chatterjee, Y. Wang, D. Albanes, E.P. Gelmann, M.D. Friesen, E. Riboli, and R.B. Hayes
