Six cups a day could fight cancer, studies suggest
By Karen Collins, R.D.

New research suggests that phytochemicals in green tea may help prevent the spread of prostate cancer. Since earlier research suggests that the same natural plant substances might also help prevent the development of prostate cancer, scientists say that more studies are needed on green tea’s ability to fight this common cancer.

The best way to reduce your risk of prostate cancer, however, still lies in eating a mostly plant-based diet. In the new green-tea study, researchers observed that phytochemicals called polyphenols attack growth factors and proteins, interrupting processes that increase the size of tumors, thus preventing them from spreading to other parts of the body.

Further study of green tea may help develop a treatment to prevent the dormant, nonthreatening type of prostate cancer many men have late in life from becoming aggressive and fatal. Studies presented at the most recent American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) conference on diet and cancer also show that green tea in mice with an aggressive form of cancer can decrease the spread or metastasis of prostate cancer to liver, bone and other sites.