Lycopene inhibited cell growth of liver cancer and protected normal cells from invasion the cancer in a study College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Korea. March 2006
October 2005. A Study showed that lycopene and a tomatoe paste extract behave as an antioxidant at low concentrations and as a prooxidant at high concentrations. That means eat a lot! At low concentrations lycopene and tomatoe acted as an antioxidant but didn't protect DNA in cells. But at high concentrations it did and it significantly reduced cancer cell survival in prostate cancer tests. This means lycopene and tomatoes are not just preventative but can help after cancer has been diagnosed.
University of Illinois, 2005, Tomato paste hexane extract inhibited prostate cancer cell proliferation. Whole tomato paste and its water extract showed only modest growth inhibition.
What does this mean?
These are new studies and they are showing that lycopene is not only protective against prostate cancer as has been shown in the past, but that in high concentrations it is HIGHLY protective AND pro-active against existing prostate cancer.
It means take concentrated lycopene and eat cooked and concentrated tomato foods now.
It means that eating tomato paste isn't enough once you get cancer. But concentrated lycopene and tomato paste hexane extract can help cancer cells die!
more studies...
Nov 2002: Twenty-six men with newly diagnosed prostate cancer were randomly assigned to receive a tomato oleoresin extract containing 30 mg of lycopene (n = 15) or no supplementation (n = 11) for 3 weeks before radical prostatectomy. After 3 weeks, subjects in the intervention group had smaller tumors, less involvement of other organ tissues with cancer, and lower mean plasma prostate-specific antigen levels compared with the control group. The numbers from this research are pretty staggering. This study was released just 5 months after my dad died. This is huge life-saving news men should not ignore.
2004, turkey - Lycopene and Fibroid Tumors! (yes!) Fibroids are benign tumors of the uterus affecting millions of women. This Veterinary group in Turkey studied a quail that had pretty much the same problem: spontaneous smooth-muscle tumors in the oviduct. Lycopene decreased the number and size of tumors enough that studying its use in treating uterine fibroids in humans was recommended. (But why wait for the study? Take lycopene now if you have this problem!)
You'll wait months and it will be worth it. Home-grown tomatoes taste incredible. In pots you are limited only by space. It's easier to grow the medium-sized tomatoes in pots.
