FOODS THAT MAY HELP PREVENT PROSTATE CANCER: SOY PRODUCTS

Is it possible that soy is a magic bean? Soy proteins have been found to inhibit cancer cells from spreading in the body. They are consumed daily by Asian men in their homeland, but rarely in America. When genistein, a key component of soybeans, was put in a petri dish with prostate cancer cells, it stopped the cancer dead in its tracks. Dr. Stephen Barnes, intrigued by this information, is conducting a study on the effects of soy products involving 80 men with elevated PSA levels.

Dr. Barnes states that recent work done at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine may tie in with his research. There, investigators have identified a gene that controls the creation of a chemical that can help protect men against prostate cancer. If Dr. Barnes can determine a link between soy products and the functioning of that gene, his discovery would be a significant breakthrough.

Two Finnish scientists investigated the possible role of the Japanese diet in prostate health. Japanese men have a lower death rate from prostate cancer than do men from Western cultures, even though in Japan they have about the same incidence of small prostate cancers. The researchers wondered if it were possible that the Japanese diet might keep small prostate cancers from growing into deadly tumors.

The researchers also observed that Seventh-Day Adventist men, who typically eat a lot of lentils, peas, beans, tomatoes, raisins, dates, and dried fruits, have a low death rate from prostate cancer, as do Japanese men living in Hawaii who continue to eat rice and tofu. These foods are rich in isoflavonoids—plant versions of the female sex hormone estrogen—that inhibit the growth of cancer cells in the test tube.

The researchers analyzed blood samples from 14 Japanese men who ate the typical soy-rich Japanese diet and 14 Finnish men who ate the typical dairy-and-meat diet of Finland. The levels of the estrogen-like isoflavonoids were 7 to 114 times higher in the blood of the Japanese men than in the blood of the Finns. The Finnish researchers concluded: "A lifelong high concentration of isoflavonoids in [blood] plasma... might explain why Japanese men have small latent carcinomas [cancers] that seldom develop to clinical disease."

In another study, 7,999 American men of Japanese ancestry were first examined between 1965 and 1968 and then followed through 1986. During this time period, 174 cases of prostate cancer were recorded in the group, considerably less than the rate in other populations. The researchers observed that rice and tofu were both associated with decreased risk of prostate cancer.

As mentioned earlier, the incidence of clinically diagnosed prostatic cancer ranged from 0.8 cases per 100,000 population in Shanghai, China, to 100.1 per 100,000 among African-Americans in Alameda County, California. It is much more common among Caucasians than Asians.

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