Does Lycopene Help Men With Recurrent Prostate Cancer After Being Treated With Surgery or Radiation Therapy?
(Reference: Borden LS Jr., et al. AUA Annual Meeting 2005; abstract #1014, page 275.) Researchers studied 36 men that had a recurrence of prostate cancer after conventional therapy. Patients were treated with lycopene supplements at one of six dosage levels (15, 30, 45, 60, 90, or 120 mg/day) for 12 months. The patients had their PSA levels checked every month. No patient experienced a PSA reduction of greater than 50%, and 37% of the patients experienced progression while on this treatment. Only 1 patient had to discontinue lycopene supplements and this was because of diarrhea. Does this mean that lyycopene supplements are worthless for men with a rising PSA after localized treatment? Not necessarily, because this was a small study and we need to learn more about it from the researchers after they publish their paper. For example, it would be interesting to know the Gleason scores of these patients. Did they have mostly non-aggressive or aggressive initial tumors??? Regardless, it cer
