The Potential Role of Lycopene for the Prevention and Therapy of Prostate Cancer: From Molecular Mechanisms to Clinical Evidence

Abstract

Lycopene is a phytochemical that belongs to a group of pigments known as carotenoids. It is red, lipophilic and naturally occurring in many fruits and vegetables, with tomatoes and tomato-based products containing the highest concentrations of bioavailable lycopene. Several epidemiological studies have linked increased lycopene consumption with decreased prostate cancer risk. These findings are supported by in vitro and in vivo experiments showing that lycopene not only enhances the antioxidant response of prostate cells, but that it is even able to inhibit proliferation, induce apoptosis and decrease the metastatic capacity of prostate cancer cells. However, there is still no clearly proven clinical evidence supporting the use of lycopene in the prevention or treatment of prostate cancer, due to the only limited number of published randomized clinical trials and the varying quality of existing studies. The scope of this article is to discuss the potential impact of lycopene on prostate cancer by giving an overview about its molecular mechanisms and clinical effects.

Low-lycopene containing tomato powder diet does not protect against prostate cancer in TRAMP mice

“…Therefore, the modest reduction in progression observed at 16 weeks of age by pathology was not related to serum levels of VEGF. Apoptosis and proliferation have been shown to be impacted by TP and lycopene in cell and animal models of PCa [4,12,13,29,30]. However, there were no significant differences in the AI and PI between diets at 12, 16, and 20 weeks of age.…”

Lycopene regulates production performance, antioxidant capacity, and biochemical parameters in breeding hens

“…Lycopene, which has no vitamin A activity, is an acyclic isomer of β-carotene (Rao and Agarwal 1999) that contains 11 conjugated double bonds in an all-trans configuration (Stahl and Sies 1996). In humans, lycopene protects against several diseases including certain cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and associated coronary artery disease (Rao 2002;Rissanen et al 2002;Davis et al 2005;Palozza et al 2010;Holzapfel et al 2013). It has been reported that lycopene is also beneficial to animals.…”

Anti-Inflammatory Effect of Lycopene on Experimental Spinal Cord Ischemia Injury via Cyclooxygenase-2 Suppression

“…It is now widely accepted that lycopene exerts beneficial effects on human health through anti-inflammatory and antioxidative activities [14-16]. For instance, lycopene reportedly reduces the redox imbalance and inflammation resulting from exposure to cigarette smoke [17], protects against intestinal injuries induced by methotrexate in rats [18], and exhibits anticancer properties [19]. Furthermore, it has been shown that lycopene reduced inflammatory hallmarks such as tissue swelling and neutrophil activation in a rat model of acute inflammation [20].…”