Because
prostate cancer has a long latency period and is typically diagnosed in elderly men, it represents an ideal candidate disease for
chemoprevention. Therefore, even a modest delay achieved through intervention could have a significant impact on the outcome of this disease. Epidemiological and laboratory studies have provided convincing evidence that diet, genetic factors, and lifestyle are major causes of
prostate cancer. Although surgery,
radiotherapy, and
hormone therapy are the most widely accepted curative options for a selected group of patients suffering from
prostate cancer, the side effects of these treatments are many. In recent years, many dietary agents have been being described that show a wide range of chemopreventive effects in cell culture and selected animal model systems of prostate
carcinogenesis. One such agent is the beverage
tea, which, next to water, is the most popularly consumed beverage in the world. The epidemiological studies and recent data, amassed from various laboratories around the world, provide evidence that
tea polyphenols such as
epigallocatechin-3-gallate,
epigallocatechin, and
epicatechin-3-gallate may have the potential to lower the risk of
prostate cancer in the human population. Recently, it has been shown that
green tea polyphenols, when given to TRAMP, a transgenic mouse model that mimics progressive forms of human
prostate cancer, exert remarkable preventive effects against
prostate cancer development.
Chemoprevention of
prostate cancer by
tea polyphenols appears to occur through the modulation of various molecular targets. This article attempts to address the issue of the possible use of
tea, especially
green tea, for the
chemoprevention of
prostate cancer.