The beverage tea in chemoprevention of prostate cancer

In recent years, many laboratories around the world have reported several health-beneficial, especially cancer-preventive, effects of tea consumption in animal models and human population studies. We reasoned that prostate cancer represents an ideal candidate disease for chemoprevention because even a modest delay achieved through intervention through drugs or diet could have a significant impact on the outcome of this disease. Based on the epidemiological studies and recent data, amassed from various laboratories around the world, there is convincing evidence that polyphenolic antioxidants present in the beverage tea, such as epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), epigallocatechin (EGC) and epicatechin-3-gallate (ECG), may have the potential to lower the risk of prostate cancer in the human population. Our recent study has demonstrated that green tea polyphenols, when given to transgenic adenocarcinoma of the mouse prostate (TRAMP), a transgenic mouse model that mimics progressive forms of human prostate cancer, exerts remarkable preventive effects against prostate cancer development. The results from a recent human study conducted in China have demonstrated that the prostate cancer risk declined with increasing frequency, duration and quantity of green tea consumption. This chapter addresses the issue of possible use of tea beverage, especially green tea, for the chemoprevention of prostate cancer.