Lycopene For Prostate Cancer Treatment

How Does This Specific Pollen Extract Work

Prostaphil-2 has a number of unique mechanisms of action that are responsible for its wide range of benefits.

Lycopene In Treating Patients With Prostate Cancer Or Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

RATIONALE: Chemoprevention is the use of certain substances to keep cancer from forming, growing, or coming back. Eating a diet high in lycopene, a substance found in tomatoes and tomato products, may keep cancer from forming or growing. Collecting and storing samples of blood from patients with cancer to study in the laboratory may help doctors learn more about changes that may occur in DNA and identify biomarkers related to cancer.

PURPOSE: This randomized clinical trial is studying how well lycopene works in treating patients with prostate cancer or benign prostatic hyperplasia.

OBJECTIVES:

OUTLINE: This is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms.

Blood samples are collected at baseline and before surgery for biomarker/laboratory studies.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 120 patients will be accrued for this study.

Lycopene And The Progression Of Bph

A number of studies have been done to investigate the benefits of lycopene in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia. While initial results show that lycopene can help prevent the progression of the disorder, not all studies have been positive. Even though more and larger studies are still required, there are enough well-designed positive studies to recommend lycopene in the treatment of this prostate disorder.

A 2008 study published in The Journal of Nutrition is the most quoted paper on the effect of lycopene on the progression of benign prostatic hyperplasia .

In this study, 40 patients suffering from BPH, without prostate cancer but with high risks of cancer, were recruited. Over the course of 6 months, each of the participants was given 15 mg/day of lycopene or placebo.

At the end of the 6 months, the result of the study showed that:

• Plasma lycopene concentration was increased in the patients receiving lycopene but not in the placebo group
• The serum levels of PSA were reduced in the lycopene group but not in the placebo group
• Ultrasonography and rectal examinations showed that the prostate glands of the patients in the placebo group grew larger but the prostate glands of the lycopene group were not enlarged

This study proves that lycopene can prevent BPH from progressing into prostate cancer.

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Lycopene Treatment Of Prostate Cancer Cell Lines Inhibits Adhesion And Migration Properties Of The Cells

Simone Elgass, Alan Cooper, Mridula Chopra

School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, IBBS, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK

Corresponding author: Dr Mridula Chopra, School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, St Michael’s Building, White Swan Road, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO1 2DT. Tel: 02392842796 Fax: 02392843565 Email: Mridula.Chopraac.uk

Citation:Int J Med Sci

Lycopene Intake Linked To Lower Risk Of Aggressive Prostate Cancer

In a new prospective study on the role of dietary lycopene in reducing the risk of prostate cancer, researchers found that consuming foods high in lycopene is linked to a reduced risk of lethal prostate cancer.

Finding ways to facilitate the prevention of prostate cancer remains an important area of research, as prostate cancer is still the second leading cause of cancer deaths among men in the United States.

In a new prospective study on the role of dietary lycopene in reducing the risk of prostate cancer, Edward Giovannucci, MD, of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, and colleagues found that consuming foods high in lycopene is linked to reduced risk of lethal prostate cancer. They suggest that with the advent of prostate-specific antigen screening, which has resulted in an uptick of asymptomatic, early-stage, and indolent prostate cancer diagnoses, the more relevant endpoint for lycopene studies may be the detection of lethal prostate cancer rather than indolent disease. The study was in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Higher intake of dietary lycopene was inversely associated with any prostate cancer, with the strongest association for lethal prostate cancer . Higher lycopene consumption was also associated with prostate tumors with less angiogenic potential, according to the study authors.

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Search Results And Study Characteristics

Figure Figure11 depicts the literature search and the study selection process. We identified 319 articles from the PubMed database, 959 articles from the Sciencedirect database, and 1037 articles from Wiley online library. After excluding duplicates and papers that did not meet the inclusion criteria, 37 full articles of 38 potentially relevant studies were obtained. When full text was reviewed, we further excluded the following articles: 1 article47 in which the unit for estimate of trend was g/1000 kcal 3 random control trial4850 with different outcomes 5 studies about lycopene and PCa progression 5155 1 before-after study in which there was no control group 56 and 2 studies57,58 conducted by Giovannucci with shorter follow-up than the study conducted by Zu20 in the same cohort. Since Huang’s article26 contains 2 different studies in total we identified 25 articles containing 26 studies which met our criteria, with 9 CC studies,715 17 NCC or cohort studies.1631 Totally, 17,517 cases of PCa reported from 563,299 participants were analyzed.

Flowchart of literature searches.

General Information And History

Calcium, the most abundant mineral in the body, is found in some foods, added to others, available as a dietary supplement, and present in some medicines . Calcium is required for vascular contraction and vasodilation, muscle function, nerve transmission, intracellular signaling, and hormonal secretion, although less than 1% of total body calcium is needed to support these critical metabolic functions. Serum calcium is very tightly regulated and does not fluctuate with changes in dietary intake the body uses bone tissue as a reservoir for, and source of, calcium to maintain constant concentrations of calcium in blood, muscle, and intercellular fluids.

To evaluate the association between calcium intake and prostate cancer mortality and morbidity, it may be important to assess objective, biological of calcium, include data that account for nutritional and supplemental calcium intake, and control for other confounding factors. However, studies of the association between calcium and prostate cancer have been limited to nutritional sources of calcium, such as dairy products. Although more than half of the U.S. population uses vitamin and mineral supplements , few studies include supplement use in the association of disease risk, including prostate cancer or mortality rates. For more information, see Prostate Cancer Prevention.

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Lycopene Intake And Risk Of Pca

A total of 13 studies714,1620 reported the relevant risk of PCa with lycopene supplementation, including 8 CC studies714 and 5 NCC or cohort studies.1620 All of these studies provided complete data allowing doseresponse meta-analysis.

As shown in Figure Figure2,2, the pooled RR of highest vs. lowest category of total lycopene intake was 0.910 for all studies, 0.813 for CC studies, 0.939 for NCC or cohort studies. Although no statistical significance was found, higher lycopene intake showed a trend to reduce the incidence of PCa. We further carried out several sensitivity analyses. Heterogeneity between studies was mainly caused by 1 Chinese study.11 After this study was excluded, there was no longer any evidence of significant heterogeneity for highest vs. lowest categories of total lycopene intake . Moreover, the overall pooled estimates became significant without this study .3). The heterogeneity test showed moderate heterogeneity among all studies, moderate heterogeneity among CC studies and little heterogeneity among NCC or cohort studies .

Data Extraction And Quality Assessment

Three reviewers independently performed the data extraction by using a standardized data collection form. We extracted the information as follows: first author, cohort name, publication year, country, age, duration of follow-up, study design, clinical classification of PCa, numbers of cases, numbers of controls or noncases or person years, dose categories, adjusted or crude RR, OR or HR with 95% CI and adjusted variables that entered into the multivariable model as potential confounders. If studies already reported a linear doseresponse trend with CI or standard error, they were used directly. For doseresponse meta-analysis, the term RR will be used as a generic term for RO , rate ratio , odds ratio and HR.35 The mean value or midpoint of the upper and lower boundaries of each category was used to estimate assigned dose. For the lowest quartile, lower boundary was assumed to be 0 if it was not provided. For the open-ended upper category, the assigned dose which was the cut point multiplied by 1.5 was evaluated.36 Any potential inconsistencies were resolved through discussion.

Methodological quality of studies was evaluated using the NewcastleOttawa Scale.37 Other aspects of study quality, such as follow-up duration, study types, study location, adjustment for various important confounders and clinical classification, were investigated through subgroup analysis.

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How To Add More Tomatoes To Your Diet

Incorporating more tomato-based recipes into your diet is simple.

There are many nutritious tomato dishes to try. For example, adding some sun-dried or fresh tomatoes to salads, eating your eggs with sliced tomatoes or salsa, and enjoying tomato-based soups are excellent ways to boost your lycopene intake.

In the summer months, you can buy fresh, local tomatoes to add to sandwiches and chop into salads.

Drinking plain tomato juice each morning is another good option. Just make sure to pick a low sodium variety.

Summary

Role Of Lycopene In Prostate Cancer

Lycopene is a carotenoid that is biologically found in some fruits and vegetables. It is responsible for the natural red color in those fruits and vegetables. Tomatoes are an excellent source of lycopene, for example, fresh tomatoes approximately contain 12g of lycopene per 100 mg. Lycopene, as established by multiple independent studies, has been known as one of the factors to decrease risks of prostate cancer in men as it is an anti-oxidant.

However, the relation established by multiple studies of the effects of lycopene on decreasing the risk of prostate cancer has varied between linear, inverse, or null. As prostate cancer takes years to develop in a human male body, studying the effects of dietary intake becomes increasingly difficult. There is no clinical proof to substantiate the effects of lycopene on cancer development cells over the years. Diets rich with carotenoids are generally associated with decreased risks of certain types of cancers as established by studies that are underway or have published the results.

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Better Quality Of Life With A Healthy Prostate

There are many advantages to a healthy prostate. Men with a constant urge to urinate suffer from a lack of confidence both at work and at home. The persistent need to urinate makes travel and leisure activities torture. A satisfying sex life seems a thing of the past.

Erectile dysfunction can have disastrous effects on married life and relationships. The emotional toll is sometimes too much to take and partners begin to distance themselves from each other. Prostaphytol serves to promote a healthy prostate so that sexual drive and function return to normal.

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Evaluation Of Cam Therapies

It is important that the same scientific methods used to test conventional therapies are used to test CAM therapies. The National Cancer Institute and the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health are sponsoring a number of clinical trials at medical centers to test CAM therapies for use in cancer.

Conventional approaches to cancer treatment have generally been studied for safety and effectiveness through a scientific process that includes clinical trials with large numbers of patients. Less is known about the safety and effectiveness of complementary and alternative methods. Few CAM therapies have been tested using demanding scientific methods. A small number of CAM therapies that were thought to be purely alternative approaches are now being used in cancer treatmentnot as cures, but as complementary therapies that may help patients feel better and recover faster. One example is acupuncture. According to a panel of experts at a National Institutes of Health meeting in November 1997, acupuncture has been found to help control nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy and pain related to surgery. However, some approaches, such as the use of laetrile, have been studied and found not to work and to possibly cause harm.

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Where Does The Link Come From

There are three major theories for the link between lycopene and prostate cancer.

The most accepted theory is theantioxidant effect. Lycopene is a known antioxidant. This means that it can help fight off oxidative damage that cause chronic disease and cancers. Lycopene is found in high concentrations in prostate cells. Thus, due to proximity, its likely the fastest-acting antioxidant against prostate cancer.

Lycopene and other carotenoids can also help stop tumor growth by increasing the communication between healthy cells and decreasing the communication between malignant ones.One study speculated that lycopene was able to reduce prostate cancer because of its suspected ability to inhibit the growth of tumor cells.

Lycopene also may impact insulin growth factor. High levels of insulin growth factor are linked to prostate cancer. Lycopene consumption can actually reduce insulin growth factor levels. Thus,there may be a correlation with regards to lycopenes ability to reduce the cancer-causing impacts of insulin growth factor.

How Lycopene Can Relieve Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

Benign prostatic hyperplasia is a benign overgrowth of prostate cells.

Normally, the prostate gland plays a major role in male fertility. It supplies the volume of the ejaculate in the form of fructose, as the energy source of sperm cells, and PSA , which give sperm its motility.

However, as men age, the cells of the prostate gradually become insensitive to the cellular signaling mechanism that regulates their population. In addition, these cells become less responsive to inducers of apoptosis. This means that the programmed cell death meant to reduce the number of prostate cells becomes a lot less effective.

The overall result of these dysfunctions is an overgrowth of prostate cells.

However, these are not the only factors that can cause benign prostatic hyperplasia. The disorder has been shown to have hormonal involvement.

Dihydrotestosterone or DHT, an androgenic metabolite of testosterone, can also induce rapid growth of prostate cells. In addition, insulin-like growth factors can also contribute to this disorder.

Since prostate hyperplasia involves an uncontrolled increase in the population of prostate cells, it may turn from benign to cancerous. Therefore, people living with benign prostatic hyperplasia have increased risks of prostate cancer.

Lycopene can help treat benign prostatic hyperplasia and prevent its progression to prostate cancer by the mechanisms listed above.

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Lycopene In Treating Patients With Metastatic Prostate Cancer

• Study Details

RATIONALE: Lycopene, a substance found in tomatoes, may lower prostate-specific antigen levels and slow or prevent the development of prostate cancer.

PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of lycopene in treating patients who have asymptomatic metastatic prostate cancer and a rising PSA level.

OBJECTIVES:

Primary

• Determine the percentage of patients with asymptomatic androgen-independent metastatic prostate cancer and an elevated prostate-specific antigen level who sustain a decline in PSA after 4 months of treatment with lycopene.

Secondary

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study.

Patients receive oral lycopene twice daily on days 1-28. Courses repeat every 28 days for at least 4 months in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Patients are followed every 3 months until disease progression and then every 6 months for up to 5 years.

Lycopene For Prevention And Treatment Of Prostate Cancer

Kaia M. Everson, Pharm.D. Cydney E. McQueen, Pharm.D.

Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2004 61

Prostate cancer is the most frequent type of cancer in American men. An estimated 189,000 new cases were diagnosed in the United States in 2002, and more than 30,000 men died of the disease. Despite these statistics, most men die “with prostate cancer” as opposed to “of prostate cancer,” because the tumor is often relatively slow growing. Even so, prostate cancer can cause significant suffering because of such symptoms as urinary retention and bone pain. The risk of prostate cancer increases rapidly after age 50, and the tumor is especially prevalent in Western populations, particularly African-American men.

Because of the large impact of prostate cancer, there is great interest in new methods of prevention and treatment some of these appear to reduce mortality. Lycopene is a natural product that has recently gained attention as an agent for prostate cancer prevention and treatment.

Lycopene is found in high concentrations in tomatoes and tomato products, such as ketchup, tomato paste, and tomato sauce. Over 80% of the lycopene in American diets comes from tomato products. Not all tomatoes have equal amounts of lycopene. Concentrations vary from 50 mg/kg in red tomatoes to 5 mg/kg in yellow tomatoes. Other reddish foods, such as watermelon, papaya, and pink grapefruit, may also contain lycopene, but at lower concentrations than in tomatoes.

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