Nagi Kumar on Green Tea Catechin Treatment for Prostate Cancer Prevention

Nagi B. Kumar, PhD, Professor/Director, Cancer Chemoprevention, Moffitt Cancer Center, discusses the potential of green tea catechins for the prevention of prostate cancer.

Kumar and her team conducted a placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial of one year of Polyphenon E, a proprietary mixture of green tea catechins in 97 men with high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN) or atypical small acinar proliferstion (ASAP) on prostate biopsy. The primary study endpoint was the total number of early organ-confined prostate cancer diagnoses in the PolyE versus placebo arm at one year.

Ten out 26 men in the placebo arm progressed to prostate cancer while only there progressed to prostate cancer in the Polyphenon E arm. The men in the treatment arm also had a significant lowering of PSA throughout the year compared to the placebo arm, says Kumar.