Tomatoes Lower Prostate Cancer Risk

March 4, 2002 -- Men, here's good news, especially if you like pizza, pasta, and other tomato-laden foods. There's strong new evidence that something in that delicious red sauce may help protect you from developing prostate cancer.

Earlier studies suggested that a tomato-rich diet fights existing prostate cancer. Researchers suspected the benefit was due to lycopene, a powerful antioxidant that's abundant in tomatoes. Processing tomatoes makes the lycopene more potent, so canned and cooked products such as spaghetti sauce pack an even more powerful punch than the fresh, raw variety.

To get a firmer grip on the association between tomato-products and prostate cancer, the researchers conducted a more comprehensive study. They looked at more than 47,000 men with prostate cancer. Each of the men had completed dietary questionnaires in 1986, 1990, and 1994.

The report appears in the March 6 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

This newest investigation "confirmed our previous findings," write Edward Giovannucci, MD, ScD, from Harvard School of Public Health, and colleagues. "Frequent tomato or lycopene intake was associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancer. Intake of tomato sauce, the primary source of [ready available] lycopene, was associated with an even greater reduction in prostate cancer risk."

The researchers saw this cancer-fighting benefit of eating tomato-based products among white men and men whose ancestors come from Southern Europe, where tomatoes are a dietary staple.

And even when they took other potentially-protective factors -- such as consuming plenty of other fruits and vegetables, or olive oil -- into account, the association between tomato products and reduced risk still held.

Although all evidence points to lycopene as the beneficial ingredient, that remains to be proved, the researchers write. For now, they recommend eating the actual tomato-based foods and not taking lycopene in supplement form.

"From the available data, we suggest that increased consumption of tomato and tomato-based products may be prudent; such a recommendation is consistent with current health guidelines to increase fruit and vegetable consumption. Efficacy and safety of pills containing only lycopene, however, would need to be specifically evaluated," they write.