Green Tea May Prevent Prostate Cancer

ANAHEIM, Calif.--After one year taking green tea catechins (GTCs), only one in a group of 32 men at high risk of developing prostate cancer were diagnosed with the disease, compared to nine out of 30 in a control group. Italian researchers found epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) in GTCs targeted prostate cancer cells for death, without damaging benign controls. The results were reported at the 96th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Anaheim, Calif. (http://www.aacr.org/Default.aspx?p=1066&d=432). Italian researchers from the University of Parma, University of Modena, Reggio Emilia and Saverio Bettuzzi found Clusterin, a gene involved in prostate apoptosis, a possible mediator of catechins' action. "EGCG induced death in cancer cells, not normal cells, inducing Clusterin expression," said Bettuzzi.

The research subjects were aged 45 to 75 with high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia--malignant lesions that are prostate cancer precursors--for which no treatment had been given, and who were not consuming green tea, tea-derived products or antioxidants, or following anti-androgenic therapy. Intervention subjects received 200 mg of GTCs (50 percent EGCG). The 30 percent incidence rate of prostate cancer in the control group was consistent with previous findings, as was the absence of significant side effects or adverse reactions among the treated group.