Índice

    Lycopene and vitamin E used together not separately suppressed prostate cancer growth according to a Dutch researcher. In may issue of the Journal of Nutrition, a team led by Jacqueline Limpens of the department of urology at Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, reported on the effects of differing doses and combinations of lycopene and vitamin E on size groups of mice inoculated with prostate cancer cells. The animals were given either placebo, vitamin E in a small (5 mg per kg of body weight) or large (50 mg per kg) dose, lycopene in a small (5mg per kg) or large (50 mg per kg) dose, or a combination of lycopene and vitamin E (5mg each of the two nutrients per kg).

    After up to 95 days of supplementation, none of the mice receiving either vitamin E or lycopene singly experienced any difference in the size of their tumors. The group that received both E and lycopene, by contrast, showed significantly reduced tumor vaolue along with greater longevity than the placebo group. In addition, levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA), a protein that is considered a marker for prostate cancer, were lower in the lycopene/vitamin E group.

    [Limpens J, Schroder FH, de Ridder CMA, Bolder CA, Wildhagen MF, Obermuller-Jevic UC, Kramer K, van Weerden WM. Combined Lycopene and Vitamin E Treatment Suppresses the growth of PC-346C Human Prostate Cancer Cells in Nude Mife. J. Nutr. 136:1287-1293, May 2006]