Tomato Extract May Have Role in Slowing Prostate Cancer
Tomato Extract May Have Role in Slowing Prostate Cancer
Aug. 10, 2001 -- A tomato extract called lycopene -- found naturally in tomatoes, pink grapefruit, watermelon, and other foods -- might have a role in slowing the progression of prostate cancer, according to a small study of men undergoing surgical removal of their prostate.
Twenty-six men with prostate cancer who were scheduled to have their prostate removed were randomly assigned to receive a 15 mg capsule of lycopene twice daily for three weeks, or no supplementation. Following surgery, the prostates of men from both groups were compared.
Study author Omer Kucuk, MD, says the study was undertaken with the expectation that the supplement would only effect microscopic molecular features of the tumors, not their actual size or aggressiveness.
So when the results came in, Kucuk and colleagues were startled: the men who used the lycopene supplement actually had smaller tumors than the men who did not. Even more intriguing, the tumors taken from the men who used lycopene supplement were more likely to be confined to the prostate, and less likely to have advanced beyond it.
Kucuk cautions that the study is very small and that men should not be advised to start using lycopene supplements on the basis of this study alone. "These results are promising and provocative," Kucuk tells WebMD. "But based on this I would not tell men to start taking supplements."
He is professor of medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit. The study appeared in the August issue of the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.
Kucuk notes that some previous studies have shown that men who consume foods with lycopene have a diminished risk for prostate cancer. The 15 mg supplement used in the study is equivalent to a very substantial amount of tomato product: approximately a cup of tomato paste or five pounds of tomatoes, according to Kucuk.
But nutritional experts say it can be difficult to attribute effects like the ones seen in Kucuk's study to any one food. At least one other study looking at diet and prostate cancer found that tomatoes offered no special protection against prostate cancer.
Tomato Extract May Have Role in Slowing Prostate Cancer
Aug. 10, 2001 -- A tomato extract called lycopene -- found naturally in tomatoes, pink grapefruit, watermelon, and other foods -- might have a role in slowing the progression of prostate cancer, according to a small study of men undergoing surgical removal of their prostate.
Twenty-six men with prostate cancer who were scheduled to have their prostate removed were randomly assigned to receive a 15 mg capsule of lycopene twice daily for three weeks, or no supplementation. Following surgery, the prostates of men from both groups were compared.
Study author Omer Kucuk, MD, says the study was undertaken with the expectation that the supplement would only effect microscopic molecular features of the tumors, not their actual size or aggressiveness.
So when the results came in, Kucuk and colleagues were startled: the men who used the lycopene supplement actually had smaller tumors than the men who did not. Even more intriguing, the tumors taken from the men who used lycopene supplement were more likely to be confined to the prostate, and less likely to have advanced beyond it.
Kucuk cautions that the study is very small and that men should not be advised to start using lycopene supplements on the basis of this study alone. "These results are promising and provocative," Kucuk tells WebMD. "But based on this I would not tell men to start taking supplements."
He is professor of medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit. The study appeared in the August issue of the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.
Kucuk notes that some previous studies have shown that men who consume foods with lycopene have a diminished risk for prostate cancer. The 15 mg supplement used in the study is equivalent to a very substantial amount of tomato product: approximately a cup of tomato paste or five pounds of tomatoes, according to Kucuk.
But nutritional experts say it can be difficult to attribute effects like the ones seen in Kucuk's study to any one food. At least one other study looking at diet and prostate cancer found that tomatoes offered no special protection against prostate cancer.