Prevention of prostate cancer.

Abstract

Prostate cancer is an ideal candidate for chemoprevention because of its high prevalence, long latency time, hormone dependency, precursor lesions, and its unique serum marker, PSA. Chemoprevention is the administration of drugs or other agents which aim to prevent the induction or inhibit/delay cancer progression. Large-scale studies favor environmental rather than genetic factors as key determinants of prostate cancer development. Among these environmental factors, nutrition certainly has a leading role. Numerous basic science studies but also clinical studies indicate that dietary compounds or diet modifications may ultimately play a major role in prostate cancer promotion and inhibition. Definitive proofs are often difficult because of methodological problems and complex triggering cascades. New pharmaceutical drugs with minimal toxicity are also currently evaluated.