BERKELEY, CA (UroToday.com) - Tea has been a very popular beverage in Asia for at least 3 000 years. Of all the tea produced worldwide, about 20% of green tea is consumed in Asian countries such as China, Japan, Korea, and India. Interestingly, these populations consistently demonstrate a lower risk of prostate cancer.
Genetic factors, as well as environmental exposure, may be involved in different incidence rates of prostate cancer in different racial/ethnic groups. Several epidemiological studies for tea consumption reported a protection against prostate cancer, although the results were not consistent.
In our recently published paper in Cancer Prevention Research, we observed that green tea extracts (polyphenon E) delayed growth of tumor and progression of prostate cancer in TRAMP mice in a dose-dependent manner. In untreated 32-weeks-old TRAMP mice, prostate carcinoma metastasis was observed in 100% of mice (8/8). But only 13% of mice (2/16) treated with high-dose Polyphenon E during the same period showed metastasis. Furthermore, long-term (32 weeks) treatment with high-dose Polyphenon E was safe and well tolerated with no evidence of toxicity in control mice based upon appearance, behavior, body weight, histopathologic analysis of major organs, hematology, serum biochemistry, MRI, and ultrasound analysis.
Early detection and screening for prostate cancer have been a subject of much debate. Therefore, chemoprevention to reduce the risk and inhibit the progression of prostate cancer may be an effective approach to reduce the burden of this disease. A translational point of these findings is that “this study provides additional evidence of the safety and chemopreventive effect of green tea extract in preventing early as well as metastatic progression of prostate cancer.”
Written by:
Jong Y. Park, PhD, MS, MPH as part of Beyond the Abstract on UroToday.com. This initiative offers a method of publishing for the professional urology community. Authors are given an opportunity to expand on the circumstances, limitations etc... of their research by referencing the published abstract.
Associate Professor
Moffitt Cancer Center
University of South Florida
12902 Magnolia Drive
Tampa, FL 33612 USA