Eating More Tomatoes Lowers Prostate Cancer (PCa) Risk

the Renal and Urology News take:

Consuming ten portions of tomatoes a week can lower the risk of prostate cancer, according to a recent study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

Researchers at the University of Bristol, Cambridge University, and Oxford University observed the diets of 1,806 men who were diagnosed with prostate cancer to those of 12,005 men who were cancer free.

They found that lycopene, an antioxidant largely found in tomatoes, showed the greatest benefit of lowering prostate cancer risk with an 18% overall reduction. Other components such as calcium and selenium were also shown to deter prostate cancer risk to a lesser degree.

Other sources of lycopene include apricots, guava, watermelon, papaya, and grapefruit, although tomatoes have it in greater amounts.

Lycopene has previously been linked to lower risk of other types of cancers, such as lung and stomach cancer, due to its ability to remove oxygenated free radicals, according to the American Cancer Society.