Veggies & the prostate, Part 1.Could a broccoli pizza help prevent prostate cancer prostate cancer, cancer originating in the prostate gland. Prostate cancer is the leading malignancy in men in the United States and is second only to lung cancer as a cause of cancer death in men. ?Researchers studied the growth of prostate cancer cells that had been implanted in laboratory rats fed diets containing 10 percent tomato powder, 10 percent broccoli powder, 5 percent tomato powder plus 5 percent broccoli powder, lycopene lycopene /ly·co·pene/ (li´ko-pen) the red carotenoid pigment of tomatoes and various berries and fruits. ly·co·pene n. (the carotenoid Carotenoid Any of a class of yellow, orange, red, and purple pigments that are widely distributed in nature. Carotenoids are generally fat-soluble unless they are complexed with proteins. in tomatoes that's linked to a lower risk of prostate cancer), or finasteride Finasteride Definition Finasteride is a drug that belongs to the class of androgen inhibitors, which means that it blocks the production of male sex hormones. It is sold in the United States and Canada under the brand names Proscar and Propecia. (a drug that shrinks benign enlarged prostates). After 22 weeks, the rats fed broccoli plus tomato had the smallest tumors, and biopsies showed that their cancer cells cells once believed to be peculiar to cancers, but now know to be epithelial cells differing in no respect from those found elsewhere in the body, and distinguished only by peculiarity of location and grouping. See also: Cancer were proliferating the least rapidly. They even did better than rats that produced no testosterone testosterone (tĕstŏs`tərōn), principal androgen, or male sex hormone. One of the group of compounds known as anabolic steroids, testosterone is secreted by the testes (see testis) but is also synthesized in small quantities in the . (Testosterone promotes the growth of prostate tumors.) The researchers believe that the two vegetables together worked better than either one alone because they may thwart cancer via different pathways. An earlier study suggested that rats fed a diet of 10 percent tomato powder for four days had lower testosterone levels, which could explain why tomatoes may help prevent prostate cancer. What to do: Don't bother taking lycopene supplements. To match the rats, a man would have to eat about 1 1/2 cups of raw broccoli (or 1 cup of cooked broccoli) plus 1/2 cup of tomato sauce every day. He could also eat 2 1/2 cups of fresh tomatoes instead of the sauce, but other studies suggest that men who eat cooked tomatoes have a lower risk of prostate cancer than men who eat raw tomatoes. Cancer Res. 67: 836, 2007. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion