Green tea consumption may prevent, treat prostate cancer

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

According to a new study published in the journal The Prostate, brewed green tea may have a role a in the prevention and treatment of prostate cancer and other prostate conditions like prostatitis.

For the exploratory, open label, phase 2 study, researchers sought to investigate the effect of green tea and black tea consumption on prostate cancer biomarkers.

They enrolled 113 men with prostate cancer and randomly assigned them to consume six cups daily of brewed green tea, black tea, or water before undergoing a radical prostatectomy. Of the 113 patients enrolled, 93 completed the study. Results showed no significant difference in biomarkers that measure proliferation, apoptosis, or oxidation in radical prostatectomy tissue among the three groups.

A biomarker that measures inflammation, called NFκB was significantly lower in the tissue of men that consumed green tea compared with those who consumed water (P = 0.013), but there was no difference between black tea and water (P = 0.931). In addition, nearly all of the men who consumed green tea had tea polyphenols detected in their prostate tissue, but no men who consumed black tea were found to have the chemicals.

Furthermore, those who consumed green tea had evidence of a systemic antioxidant effect (P = 0.03) and a small but statistically significant PSA level reduction (P = 0.04). The findings suggest that further studies to examine the effect of green tea on prostate cancer prevention and treatment are warranted.