A new study is to investigate the safety of a compound developed from green tea in patients showing early signs of prostate cancer.
Researchers are confident that substances in green tea could help to prevent the formation and growth of prostate cancer, and green tea consumption is thought to be the reason behind Asian populations' lower risk of prostate cancer than in western nations.
A team at Moffitt Cancer Centre, Florida, will now recruit 240 men between the ages of 30 and 80, all of whom will have been diagnosed with pre-cancerous changes in the prostate.
Led by Dr Nagi Kumar, director of nutrition at the centre, the team will evaluate the safety and effectiveness of Polyphenon E, a new drug that has been developed from green tea and may have a similar clinical effect to the existing prostate cancer drug Velcade, but without the unpleasant side-effects.
Nearly a quarter of cancers diagnosed in men are prostate cancer, making it the most common cancer in men in the UK.
A new study is to investigate the safety of a compound developed from green tea in patients showing early signs of prostate cancer.
