Pomegranate Juice Shows Promise In Fighting Prostate Cancer

3 October 2005
Pomegranate Juice Shows Promise In Fighting Prostate Cancer

Cancer researchers are looking for new strategies to combat the ravages of prostate cancer, a disease that impacts nearly a quarter of a million men in the U.S. every year. In previous research, pomegranate - a fruit native to the Middle East - was shown to be rich in anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory activity and was effective against tumors in mice. Surprisingly, pomegranate juice has higher levels of anti-oxidants than either red wine or green tea, both of which are believed to contain cancer-fighting agents.

Now, new research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison is studying whether the extract from pomegranates can not only kill existing cancers, but also help prevent the cancer from starting or progressing. The researchers evaluated the fruit extract's effect, at various doses, on human prostate cancer cells cultured in laboratory dishes. They discovered that pomegranate produces a "dose-dependent" effect - that is, the higher the dose of pomegranate, the more cancer cells were killed.

Pomegranate juice was then tested on mice with malignancies that had been created from human prostate cancer cells. Various doses for the mice were chosen to mimic how much pomegranate juice a typical human might be willing to drink daily.

The researchers reported dramatic results. The mice receiving the higher concentration of pomegranate extract showed significant slowing of cancer progression and a decrease in the levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), an indicator of the presence of prostate cancer. The mice that did not receive pomegranate extract had tumors that grew much faster. "Our study adds to growing evidence that pomegranates contain very powerful agents against cancer, particularly prostate cancer," says study author Dr. Hasan Mukhtar. "There is good reason now to test this fruit in humans - both for cancer prevention and for treatment," he concluded.