Serum Lycopene and the Risk of Cancer: The Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor (KIHD) Study
Received 20 October 2008; accepted 17 March 2009. published online 15 May 2009.
Purpose
Lycopene is thought to decrease the risk of cancers, although previous epidemiologic studies have produced inconsistent results. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the protective effect of lycopene against the risk of cancer.
Methods
The study population consisted of 997 middle-aged Finnish men in the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor (KIHD) cohort. During the mean follow-up time of 12.6 years, a total of 141 cancer cases appeared, of which 55 were prostate cancers. The association between the serum concentrations of lycopene and the risk of cancer was studied using the Cox proportional hazard models.
Results
An inverse association was observed between serum lycopene and overall cancer incidence. The adjusted risk ratio (RR) in the highest tertile of serum lycopene was 0.55 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.34–0.89; p=0.015) compared with the lowest serum lycopene group. No association was observed between the lycopene concentrations and a prostate cancer risk. RR for other cancers was 0.43 (95% CI, 0.23–0.79; p=0.007).
Conclusions
These findings suggest that in middle-aged men, the higher circulating concentrations of lycopene may contribute to the lower risk of cancer, with the exception of prostate cancer.
aResearch Institute of Public Health, School of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland
bSchool of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland
cInstitute for Statistical and Epidemiological Cancer Research, Helsinki, Finland
Address correspondence to: Jouni Karppi, Research Institute of Public Health, School of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, University of Kuopio, PO Box 1627, FI-70211 Kuopio, Finland. Tel.: (358) 40-3552945. Fax: (358) 17-162936.
ABSTRACT