Green Tea May Lower Prostate Cancer Risk

New research has proven that drinking green tea may help prevent prostate cancer in men who have a high risk of developing the potentially life threatening disease.

The new study was conducted researchers led by Nagi Kumar from the Moffitt Cancer Center in the United States.  Kumar and his colleagues assessed the safety and effectiveness of the active components in green tea to prevent prostate cancer development in men who have premalignant lesions on their prostates.

For the study, the team of researchers analyzed nearly 100 men who were at risk for developing prostate cancer.  Researchers administered capsules that contained decaffeinated green tea, called Polyphenon E.  The main components of the medication contained a mixture of green tea and a substance called "catechins."  The drug was then prescribed to be take twice a day for cancer patients taking part in the study.

Other laboratory studies have already shown that catechins inhibit the growth of cancer cells as well as limit their motility and invasion while at the same time stimulate the death of cancer cells.  The researchers compared the effects of Polyphenon E in 49 men to placebo tablets in 48 men taking part in the study over a treatment period of one year.

The team wanted to find out whether green tea catechins could suppress prostate cancer development in men who had high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN) or atypical small acinar proliferation (ASAP).

The researchers found that people who had taken the green tea capsules had a significant decrease in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels.  PSA is a biomarker that in combination with other risk factors is used to screen patients for prostate cancer with high levels signifying a much higher risk of prostate cancer.

The study also noted that green tea catechins also prevent and reduce the growth of cancer tumors in animals.

Twenty percent of green tea is consumed in Asian countries.  According to researchers, in these same countries prostate cancer deaths are among the lowest in the world.  Researchers also found that the risk of prostate cancer increased among Asian men from these countries who migrate to the United States.

Prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer in men and is diagnosed in an estimated 80 percent of men who reach the age of 80.  In the US, it is estimated that there will be approximately 220,800 new cases of prostate cancer diagnosed in 2015 and 27,540 people will die from the disease.

The new study was published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research.