From The AACR 2012 Meeting – Does Lycopene Effect Prostate Cancer?

From The AACR 2012 Meeting – Does Lycopene Effect Prostate Cancer?

Yesterday’s post was about the themes I saw in cancer research. Starting today I will be reporting specific research items I saw at the meeting that specifically are important to men with prostate cancer.
Dr. Peter Gann of the University of Illinois at Chicago reported on a randomized phase2 trial he conducted using lycopene with men with high grade PINs, thought to be a precursor to the development of prostate cancer.
He started the study because there is observational epidemiology evidence, animal models and cell culture experiments that have suggested that lycopene might inhibit the development of prostate cancer. Despite this evidence, Dr. Gann pointed out that prior to his study there was little clinical trial evidence of the effectiveness of lycopene.
The trial was a 6 month repeat biopsy trial with men who had PINs. Men were randomly assigned to either a placebo control group or to the investigational group. The investigational group received 30 mg a day of a lycopene supplement.
They found that at 6 months, despite a large difference in serum (blood) lycopene concentrations in the investigational group, there was no apparent differences between the two groups.

They concluded that lycopene had no effect on cell proliferation or on prostate cancer cell inhibition.

Joel T Nowak, M.A., M.S.W.