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Plasma and Dietary Carotenoids, and the Risk of Prostate Cancer

A Nested Case-Control Study

¹ Departments of Nutrition and ² Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; ³ Division of Nutritional Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois; ⁴ Department of Food Science and Technology, and ⁵ Division of Hematology and Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine and Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; ⁶ Department of Epidemiology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland; and ⁷ Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

The association between plasma carotenoids and prostate cancer risk was investigated in a case-control study nested within the prospective Health Professionals Follow-up Study. We matched 450 incident prostate cancer cases diagnosed from 1993–1998 to 450 controls by age, time, month, and year of blood donation.

Modest inverse, but not statistically significant, associations were observed among plasma -carotene, ß-carotene, and lycopene concentrations, and overall risk of prostate cancer diagnosis {odds ratio (highest versus lowest quintile; OR), -carotene: OR, 0.67 [95% confidence interval (CI), -0.40–1.09]; ß-carotene: OR, 0.78 (95% CI, 0.48–1.25); lycopene: OR, 0.66 (95% CI, 0.38–1.13)}. The inverse association between plasma lycopene concentrations and prostate cancer risk was limited to participants who were 65 years or older (OR, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.23–0.98) and without a family history of prostate cancer (OR, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.26–0.89). Combining, older age and a negative family history provided similar results (OR, 0.43; 95% CI, 0.18–1.02). Inverse associations between ß-carotene and prostate cancer risk were also found among younger participants (<65 years of age; OR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.14–0.91; P_trend = 0.03). Combining dietary intake and plasma data confirmed our results.

We found a statistically significant inverse association between higher plasma lycopene concentrations and lower risk of prostate cancer, which was restricted to older participants and those without a family history of prostate cancer. This observation suggests that tomato products may exhibit more potent protection against sporadic prostate cancer rather than those with a stronger familial or hereditary component. In addition, our findings also suggest that among younger men, diets rich in ß-carotene may also play a protective role in prostate carcinogenesis.

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