Cancer Researchers Find Proof that Tomato Sauce Reduces DNA Damage in Prostate Cancer Patients

National Foundation for Cancer Research
Tuesday, 18 December 2001

Tomato sauce may both reduce DNA damage and help prevent and treat prostate cancer according to a new study release by National Foundation for Cancer Research Project Director Phyllis Bowen, Ph.D, R.D. at University of Illinois at Chicago. The active ingredient appears to be lycopene, an antioxidant found in large amounts in tomatoes and long thought to provide anti-cancer benefits.

Men with prostate cancer who consumed one tomato sauce-based entree a day for three weeks had a statistically significant decrease in the amount of DNA damage in their white blood cells and prostate tissues. The pasta treatments also led to a marked reduction in their blood levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA), a protein used to assess prostate cancer risk, report Longwen Chen MD, PhD, Phyllis Bowen, Ph.D, R.D., and their colleagues at the University of Illinois at Chicago with funding provided by the National Foundation for Cancer Research. The findings appear in the Dec. 19 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Human prostate tissue may be particularly vulnerable to oxidative DNA damage caused by free radicals, and an accumulation of this damage may play a role in the development of prostate cancer. Antioxidants such as lycopene can help remove free radicals. Tomatoes are especially rich in lycopene.

In past epidemiologic studies, men who reported eating more tomato-based foods had a lower risk for prostate cancer-the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among U.S. men.

In the new study, 32 men with localized prostate cancer had their blood leukocyte and prostate lycopene concentration, blood PSA levels, and blood leukocyte DNA damage measured. The subjects then ate one tomato-based pasta dish a day for three weeks before their scheduled prostate cancer surgery. Entrees consisted of a three-fourth cup of spaghetti sauce incorporated into four different dishes: sausage lasagna, baked rigatoni, penne pasta, and stuffed shells.

After the three-week regimen, and after surgery, there was an accumulation of lycopene in the prostate tissues and a statistically significant 21.3% decrease in oxidative DNA damage in leukocytes compared with pre-intervention levels. Their prostate DNA damage was 28.3% lower than a control group's. PSA levels decreased 17.5% after the intervention, but the authors note that it is unclear whether lycopene was the cause of the reduction and guess that this answer may come from the results of an ongoing clinical trial involving lycopene and a placebo.

About the National Foundation for Cancer Research

The National Foundation for Cancer Research is a cancer related charity fully dedicated to advancing basic science cancer research in the laboratory that will lead to a cure for cancer--a cure for all types of cancers. Since 1973 the National Foundation for Cancer Research has spent over $170 million to fund discovery-oriented research that has played a key role in the prevention, diagnosis and new treatments of all types of cancer. By facilitating collaboration among scientists world wide, advances in one field contribute to discoveries in another. This is what NFCR's "Laboratory Without Walls" makes possible.

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