Green Tea

Prostate Cancer

EGCG provides other benefits specific to prostate cancer prevention. A study published in the December 2004 issue of the International Journal of Cancer found that EGCG significantly inhibited, in a dose-dependent manner, the production of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a marker for prostate cancer risk. Not only did EGCG lower PSA levels, but it also suppressed all the activities of PSA which were examined that promote prostate cancer.

Green tea polyphenols halt prostate cancer at multiple levels

The polyphenols in green tea help prevent the spread of prostate cancer by mobilizing several molecular pathways that shut down the proliferation and spread of tumor cells, while also inhibiting the growth of blood vessels that supply the cancer with nourishment, according to research published in the December 2004 issue of Cancer Research.

Green tea polyphenols:

  • decrease insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), while increasing levels of IGF binding protein-3, which binds IGF-1, further diminishing its activity. (Increased levels of IGF-1 are associated not only with prostate cancer, but cancers of the breast, lung and colon.)
  • inhibit key cell survival proteins, promoting apoptosis or programmed cell death in cancer cells.
  • reduce the expression of several compounds (urokinase plasminogen activator and matrix metalloproteinase 2 and 9) involved in the metastasis and spread of cancer cells.
  • reduce the amount of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which develops new blood vessels to carry nutrients to developing tumors.