With 13 million new cases worldwide every year,
prostate cancer is as a very real public health concern.
Prostate cancer is common in over-50s men and the sixth-leading cause of
cancer-related death in men worldwide. Like all
cancers, prostate cancer is multifactorial - there are non-modifiable risk factors like heredity, ethnicity and geographic location, but also modifiable risk factors such as diet. Diet-
cancer linkages have risen to prominence in the last few years, with accruing epidemiological data pointing to between-population incidence differentials in numerous
cancers. Indeed, there are correlations between fat-rich diet and risk of
hormone-dependent
cancers like
prostate cancer and
breast cancer. Diet is a risk factor for
prostate cancer, but certain
micronutrients in specific diets are considered protective factors against
prostate cancer. Examples include tomato
lycopene,
green tea epigallocatechin gallate, and soy
phytoestrogens. These
micronutrients are thought to exert
cancer-protective effects via
anti-oxidant pathways and inhibition of cell proliferation. Here, we focus in on the effects of
phytoestrogens, and chiefly
genistein and
daidzein, which are the best-researched to date. Soy
phytoestrogens are nonsteroid molecules whose structural similarity lends them the ability to mimic the effects of 17ß-estradiol. On top of
anti-oxidant effects, there is evidence that soy
phytoestrogens can modulate the epigenetic modifications found in
prostate cancer. We also studied the impact of
phytoestrogens on epigenetic modifications in
prostate cancer, with special focus on DNA methylation,
miRNA-mediated regulation and histone modifications.