Dietary agents for chemoprevention of prostate cancer

Prostate cancer (CaP) is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in American men, responsible for over 29,000 deaths in the year 2007. Chemoprevention is a plausible and cost-effective approach to reduce cancer morbidity and mortality through inhibition of precancerous events before the occurrence of clinical disease. Indeed, CaP is an ideal candidate disease for chemopreventive intervention as it is typically diagnosed in the elderly population with a relatively slower rate of growth and progression. The potential of dietary substances to act as chemopreventive agents against CaP is increasingly appreciated. Further, epidemiological studies have identified significant correlations between CaP incidence and dietary habits. It is hoped that, combining the knowledge based on agents with targets, we will be able to build an armamentarium of naturally occurring chemopreventive substances that could prevent or slow down the development and progression of CaP. In this review, we have summarized the findings from clinical and preclinical studies on dietary agents including green tea, pomegranate, lupeol, fisetin, and delphinidin that are currently being investigated in our laboratory for their chemopreventive potential against CaP.