Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Public release date: 29-May-2008
Jeremy.moore@aacr.org
267-646-0557
American Association for Cancer Research
Dehydrated tomatoes show promise for preventing prostate cancer
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-05/aafc-dts052708.php

PHILADELPHIA – New research suggests that the form of tomato product one eats 
could be the key to unlocking its prostate cancer-fighting potential, 
according to a report in the June 1 issue of Cancer Research, a journal of 
the American Association for Cancer Research.

“Processing of many edible plants through heating, grinding, mixing or drying 
dramatically increases their nutrition value, including their cancer 
prevention potential. It appears that the greatest protective effect from 
tomatoes comes by rehydrating tomato powder into tomato paste,” said Valeri 
V. Mossine, Ph.D., research assistant professor of biochemistry at the 
University of Missouri.

The protective effect of tomato products against prostate cancer has been 
suggested in many studies, but researchers remain uncertain about the exact 
mechanisms. Mossine and colleagues demonstrated that FruHis, an organic 
carbohydrate present in dehydrated tomato products, exerts a strong 
protective effect.

Researchers divided rats into groups of 20 and fed them a control diet or a 
diet that included tomato paste, tomato powder or tomato paste plus 
additional FruHis. All animals were then injected with prostate 
cancer-causing chemicals.

Animals fed the tomato paste plus FruHis diet had the longest survival from 
cancer at 51 weeks compared with 50 weeks in the tomato powder group, 45 
weeks in the tomato paste alone group and 40 weeks in the control group.

On post-mortem exam, prostate tumors were found in 10 percent of the rats 
that had been given a combination of tomato paste and FruHis, compared with 
30 percent of animals in the tomato powder group, 25 percent in the tomato 
paste alone group and 60 percent in the control group.

Mossine said the protective effect of tomato-based products was restricted to 
prostate tumors, which is consistent with other research on tomatoes and 
cancer. Incidence of other tumors was too small to examine.

In vitro, Mossine and colleagues evaluated the anti-cancer properties of 
FruHis and 14 other D-fructose amino acids and found that FruHis in a 
concentrated form protected against DNA damage known to lead to prostate 
cancer. When combined with lycopene, FruHis stopped cancerous cell growth 
more than 98 percent of the time.

“Before this study, researchers attributed the protective effect of tomatoes 
to ascorbic acid, carotenoids, or phenolic compounds,” Mossine said. “FruHis 
may represent a novel type of potential dietary antioxidant. Experiments like 
these suggest that a combination of FruHis and lycopene should be 
investigated as a potential therapeutic anti-tumor agent, not just a 
prevention strategy.”

Although Mossine cautioned against drawing broad conclusions from this animal 
study, he said, “the result may introduce an additional intrigue into an 
ongoing dispute over the beneficial effects of dietary lycopene and tomato 
products in lowering the risk of prostate cancer. Human trials are certainly 
warranted.”