Prostate cancer is a very common cancer in men worldwide. Although lifestyle and dietary factors have been suggested to be linked to tumor development, the dietary elements specifically associated to prostate cancer growth remain unknown.

To shed light on this issue, Mona Jeffreys, University of Bristol, UK, and colleagues conducted a study on 1806 prostate cancer patients and 12,005 healthy men. By comparing the dietary habits of these two groups, the researchers concluded that plant products such as fruits, vegetables, and dietary fibers are the foods associated with a reduced prostate cancer risk. Tomato product intake was found to be particularly important. The risk to develop prostate cancer was 18 % lower in men who had more than ten servings of tomato products per week. These effects might be related to the antioxidant properties of lycopene, the major carotenoid contained in tomatoes.

• Adherence to dietary and lifestyle recommendations and prostate cancer risk in the Prostate Testing for Cancer and Treatment (ProtecT) trial,
  Vanessa Er, J. Athene Lane, Richard M. Martin, Pauline Emmett, Rebecca Gilbert, Kerry N.L. Avery, Eleanor Walsh, Jenny L. Donovan, David E. Neal, Freddie C. Hamdy, Mona Jeffreys,
  Cancer Epidemiol., Biomarkers Prev. 2014.
  DOI: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-14-0322