Howard and all,
I'm sure Dr. Myers will respond to this news about lycopene in talks
to support groups and in his publications. He wrote to me with some
disapproval about the news I posted, to say that this is just an
isolated study with serious design problems. "How do you weigh this
as superior to earlier, positive studies?" Dr. Myers said that the
media release is especially distorted. "While beta carotene and
lycopene are carotinoids, their biology is very, very different.
There are no lab or clinical studies that would support extending the
concerns about beta carotene to lycopene or lutein, for that matter.
For example, lutein is commonly used to help manage macular
degeneration. Would you recommend this stop?"

Really, I don't want to recommend anything, I just try to report what
researchers says month to month and year to year. I take lutein (and
bilberry) myself on the advise of my optician, and I wouldn't
discourage others from following their physicians' advice. But what
Dr. Myers said to me has pushed me think further.

Whether from tomatoes, watermelon, strawberries of any food source, I
wouldn't recommend avoiding lycopene or cutting back on these foods
as part of a healthy diet. Not only has nothing been shown to be
wrong with eating those foods, other recent studies continue to
indicate that tomatoes are protective and more so with broccoli). One
fairly recent study found that women who eat tomato products
regularly may be at lower risk of heart disease. Women with the
highest amounts of lycopene in their blood had half the risk of
cardiovascular disease seen in those with low levels.

However, this is precisely the type of evidence not found in the
recent study, which found that lycopene levels in the blood of men
diagnosed with prostate cancer were closely similar to levels in men
of the same age and similar background who were fortunate enough not
to have prostate cancer. Apparently lycopene did no harm and no good
re: risk of developing prostate cancer.

I've featured some reports on protective effects of lycopene and
tomatoes on my site for close to 10 years. So I am obliged to carry
this negative report now. I requested an off-print of the article
from the authors and will send it in .pdf to anyone who wants to read
it in full. In a chart of Median and Range of serum carotenoid
concentrations (Mg/dL) in prostate cancer cases and controls, the
results for LYCOPENE alone go like this:

Cases (n = 692)
Lycopene levels
Median: 64.4
10th-90th percentile: 30.5-110.1

Controls (n = 844)
Lycopene levels
Median: 62.2
10th-90th percentile: 30.5-108.2
p value 0.31

Wouldn't we expect more men diagnosed with PCa to show low levels of
lycopene in their blood and more men without the disease to show high
levels?

Provisos can be added. For example, the best advise to men has always
been to consume their tomatoes with a some olive oil. A recent study
(2006) found that "Serum lycopene level changes with dietary lycopene
intake irrespective of the amount of fat intake. However, a diet high
in olive oil and rich in lycopene may decrease the risk of coronary
heart disease by improving the serum lipid profile compared with a
high-carbohydrate, low-fat, lycopene-rich diet."
http://tinyurl.com/3abke8

Well, the study under discussion does not seem to have considered
serum lipid profile in addition to lycopene levels. Could it be that
few men in this study consumed any significant amounts of what we
would consider to be "healthy" fats and oils?  The authors mention
fat in summarizing previous evidence suggesting that lycopene would
be effective:
   A recent meta-analysis summarizing studies published up to 2003
   reported a 10% to 20% reduction in prostate cancer risk with high
   tomato and lycopene intake, weighted strongly by findings from the
   large Health Professionals Follow-up Study. More recently, we
   prospectively assessed the intake of >25 tomato-related food items in
   almost 30,000 men in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian
   (PLCO) cohort, and found no overall association of dietary intake of
   tomatoes and lycopene with prostate cancer [1,338 cases, odds ratio
   (OR), 5th vs. 1st quintile of lycopene intake 0.95; 95% confidence
   intervals (95% CI), 0.79-1.13], although inverse associations were
   suggested for some processed tomato products commonly cooked with
   fat. Because the bioavailability of tomato-derived lycopene, an
   extremely lipophilic antioxidant, varies profoundly with heat and fat
   application, some studies have relied on blood concentrations as an
   integrated measure of lycopene intake and absorption. Overall,
   results from these blood-based studies are inconclusive; some of the
   larger studies suggest the preventive effects of lycopene in
   subgroups with aggressive disease, older men, or men without a family
   history of prostate cancer.

Perhaps it weill turn out thattheir own study was inadequate to find
a "tomato  effect." But on the face of it, it seems to me that what
they have shown, if nothing more, is that for the general population,
taking lycopene supplements and eating tomato sauce offer no
significant protections from prostate cancer.

And with that, I wish you all plenty of tomatoes for taste and
enjoyment and all he good foods that go with them!  And because
(unlike the finding on beta-carotene), nothing so far suggests that
tomatoes do any harm whatsoever.

best
Jacquie
http://psa-rising.com