Anticancer properties of carotenoids in prostate cancer: A review

Nathalia da Costa Pereira Soares¹, Anderson Junger Teodoro², Priscila Falagan Lotsch³, José Mauro Granjeiro³ and Radovan Borojevic<sup>3,4

1</sup>Science Food Program, Institute of Chemistry, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, ²Food and Nutrition Program, Laboratory of Nutritional Biochemistry, Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, ³National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology and ⁴Regenerative Medicine Center, Faculty of Medicine of Petropolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Offprint requests to: Nathalia da Costa Pereira Soares, Laboratório de Proliferação e Diferenciação Celular, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Av. Carlos Chagas, 373, Bloco F. 2º andar, Cidade Universitária, Ilha do Fundão, Rio de Janeiro, RJ. Brasil. 21941-902. e-mail: ncpsoares@gmail.com

Summary. Prostate cancer is the most common noncutaneous cancer of men in the world. Several epidemiological studies have linked increased carotenoids consumption with decreased prostate cancer risk. These findings are supported by in vitro and in vivo experiments showing that carotenoids not only enhance the antioxidant response of prostate cells, but that they are able to inhibit proliferation, induce apoptosis and decrease the metastatic capacity of prostate cancer cells. However, clear clinical evidence supporting the use of carotenoids in prevention or treatment of prostate cancer is not available, due to the limited number of published randomized clinical trials, and the varying protocols used in the existing studies. The scope of the present review is to discuss the potential impact of carotenoids on prostate cancer by giving an overview of the molecular mechanisms and in vitro / in vivo effects. Histol Histopathol 30, 1143-1154 (2015)

Key words: Carotenoids, Chemoprevention, Antioxidant activity, Prostate cancer

DOI: 10.14670/HH-11-635