Mixed Tocotrienols Fight Prostate Cancer

PISCATAWAY, N.J.Supplemental mixed tocotrienols may suppress prostate cancer formation and progression, according to a new study (Nutr Cancer. 2010;62(6):789-94. DOI: 10.1080/01635581003605896). Researchers from Rutgers University examined the impact of a mixed-tocotrienol diet against prostate tumorigenesis in the transgenic adenocarcinoma mouse prostate (TRAMP) mouse model, which bears close resemblance to the stages of human prostate cancer progression. Animals were fed 0.1, 0.3 or 1 percent mixed tocotrienols (as Tocomin®, from Carotech) in the diet from eight weeks to 24 weeks; the effects were compared to positive and negative control animals.

The animals fed mixed tocotrienols had a lower incidence of tumor formation; while 73 percent of animals in the control group developed palpable tumors, only 38, 33 and 22 percent of mice in the 0.1, 0.3 and 1 percent, respective, Tocomin diets developed such tumors. Added tocotrienols also significantly reduced the levels of high-grade neoplastic lesions as compared to positive results, which was found to be associated with increased expression of proapoptotic proteins and modulation of other cell cycle regulatory proteins.

WH Leong, vice president of Edison, N.J.-based Carotech, commented the study outcome poses great potential Prostate cancer is the second most common male cancer in most developed nations," he said. The American Cancer Society estimated that for this year, about 217,000 new prostate cancer cases will be identified in the United States and 32,000 men will die of prostate cancer. This study further supports the potential use of Tocomin full spectrum tocotrienol complex as a prostate cancer chemopreventive agent in humans."