March 2006
Pomegranates Show Promise in Combating Prostate Cancer |
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The juice of the pomegranate, say researchers at the UW Medical School, shows major promise to combat prostate cancer - the most common invasive cancer and the second-leading cause of cancer death in men.
With more than millions of new cases of prostate cancer diagnosed across the globe every year and the outlook poor for patients with meta static disease, researchers are looking for new strategies to combat the disease. Earlier research at Wisconsin and elsewhere has shown that the pomegranate, a fruit native to the Middle East, is rich in anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory activity and is effective against tumors in mouse skin. In fact, pomegranate juice has higher anti-oxidant activity than do red wine and green tea, both of which appear promising as anti-cancer agents.
The UW research team aimed to find out if the extract from pomegranates would not only kill existing cancer, but help prevent cancer from starting or progressing. Using human prostate cancer cells, the team first evaluated the fruit extract's effect, at various doses, on those cells cultured in laboratory dishes. They found a "dose-dependent" effect - in other words, the higher the dose of pomegranate extract the cells received, the more cells died.
The research team then progressed to tests in mice that had been injected with prostate cancer cells from humans and developed malignancies. The 24 mice were randomly divided into three groups. The control group received normal drinking water, while the animals in the second and third groups had their drinking water supplemented with .1 percent and .2 percent pomegranate extract respectively. The doses for the mice were chosen to parallel how much pomegranate juice a typical healthy human might be willing to eat or drink daily.
The results were dramatic: the mice receiving the higher concentration of pomegranate extract showed significant slowing of their cancer progression and a decrease in the levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a marker used to indicate the presence of prostate cancer in humans. The animals that received only water had tumors that grew much faster than those in the animals treated with pomegranate extract.
The next step in the evaluation of pomegranates for cancer prevention and treatment is to conduct tests in humans, according to Mukhtar.
To read a copy of the extract published in the latest addition of the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, click here.
The pomegranate is native from Iran to the Himalayas in northern India and was cultivated and naturalized over the whole Mediterranean region since ancient times. It is widely cultivated throughout India and the drier parts of southeast Asia, Malaya, the East Indies and tropical Africa. The tree was introduced into California by Spanish settlers in 1769. In this country it is grown for its fruits mainly in the drier parts of California and Arizona. Pomegranate juice is high in three different types of polyphenols, a potent form of antioxidants. Those include - tannins, anthocyanins, and ellagic acid. Pomegranate juice contains particularly high levels of all three, differentiating this fruit from other antioxidant rich fruits. Antioxidants are credited with helping in the prevention of cancer and heart disease.
