Green tea and prostate cancer

Green tea has its touted health benefits, but it could take on a more important role as a chemoprevention treatment. Researchers at the Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Florida studied for the first time how green tea benefits men over a one-year treatment period.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer worldwide, according to the World Cancer Research Fund. Twenty percent of the world’s total green tea consumption is found in Asia, where prostate cancer kills the fewest men. The connection has led prostate cancer researchers to focus on chemoprevention — identifying agents that will prevent the disease from occurring.

Previous research has found the substances in green tea, known as catechins, actively prevent cancer cells from growing and spreading while stimulating cancer cell death.

Men can live without prostate cancer symptoms for years until they progress into later high-risk stages of the disease. Screenings have been highly encouraged, and have led to finding the disease more often.

The research reinforces the need for preventive care, which it appears can come in the form of a teabag in the near future.

Source: Kumar N. American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2015