Simply put, relying on eating more tomatoes (lycopene) to prevent prostate cancer is not a good idea.
Lycopene is good, but not good enough to “fight cancer”
Eating more fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk of cancer. Researchers believe this benefit may be related to the micronutrients contained in fruits and vegetables.
Carotenoids are a group of nutrients that are thought to have chemopreventive effects. Lycopene, a common circulating carotenoid, has a variety of potential activities, including antioxidant effects.
Lycopene is found in many vegetables, most commonly tomatoes, and is more readily absorbed by the body when these foods are cooked and when oils are also present.
The results of various studies are inconsistent
Early studies of the association between lycopene and prostate cancer risk prior to 1995 were mostly negative (i.e., lycopene had no effect on prostate cancer risk), and only one case-control study showed that lycopene reduced prostate cancer risk.
In 1995, the results of a large Physicians’ Health Study found that those with the highest intake of tomato products had a one-third lower risk of prostate cancer compared to those with the lowest intake, possibly due to the richness of lycopene in these products.
This large research project led to a series of subsequent studies, but with varying results.
One of the studies analyzed the published data and concluded that there was insufficient evidence that lycopene reduces prostate cancer risk because the previous studies did not exclude the effect of total vegetable intake on prostate cancer risk, and the recording methods used were difficult to quantify lycopene intake and may have other potential biases. Therefore, the conclusion that lycopene supplementation reduces the risk of prostate cancer remains to be confirmed.
In the largest prospective study to date, the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial, a study of 9559 men, lycopene was not associated with any reduction in prostate cancer risk. Similarly, there was no association between serum concentrations of lycopene and the risk of prostate cancer.
Summary
In summary, the evidence for lycopene prevention of prostate cancer is not strong, and at this time we cannot encourage the prevention of prostate cancer by eating more lycopene-rich foods or supplements such as tomatoes.
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