Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Jun 29;8(58):99093-99103.
doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.18858. eCollection 2017 Nov 17.

Long-term supplementation of decaffeinated green tea extract does not modify body weight or abdominal obesity in a randomized trial of men at high risk for prostate cancer

Nagi B Kumar  1 , Roshni Patel  1 , Julio Pow-Sang  2 , Philippe E Spiess  2 , Raoul Salup  3 , Christopher R Williams  4 , Michael J Schell  5
Affiliations

Long-term supplementation of decaffeinated green tea extract does not modify body weight or abdominal obesity in a randomized trial of men at high risk for prostate cancer

Nagi B Kumar et al. Oncotarget. .

Abstract

Background: Evidence continues to demonstrate the role of obesity in prostate carcinogenesis and prognosis, underscoring the need to identify and continue to evaluate the effective interventions to reduce obesity in populations at high risk. The aim of the study was to determine the effect of daily consumption of decaffeinated green tea catechins (GTC) formulation (Polyphenon E® (PolyE)) for 1 year on biomarkers of obesity in men who are at high risk for prostate cancer.

Materials and methods: A randomized, double-blinded trial was conducted targeting 97 men diagnosed with HGPIN or ASAP. Subjects were randomized to receive GTC (PolyE) (n = 49) or placebo (n = 48) for 1 year. Anthropometric data were collected at baseline, 6 and 12 months and data analyzed to observe change in weight, body mass index (indicator of obesity) and waist: hip ratio (indicator of abdominal obesity).

Results: Decaffeinated GTC containing 400 mgs of the bioactive catechin, EGCG administered for 1 year to men diagnosed with ASAP and HGPIN appears to be bioavailable, well tolerated but not effective in reducing biomarkers of obesity including body weight, body mass index and waist: hip ratio.

Conclusions: The results of our trial demonstrates that men who are obese and at high risk for prostate cancer should resort to effective weight management strategies to reduce obesity and not resort to ineffective measures such as taking supplements of green tea to reduce biomarkers of obesity. Changes in body mass index and abdominal obesity seen in other studies were potentially due to caffeine and not GTC.

Keywords: body mass index and abdominal obesity; green tea catechins; obesity; prostate cancer risk.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST No authors listed in this manuscript have direct or indirect commercial financial incentives associated with publishing the article. To date, the results of this study have not been reported elsewhere.

References

    1. Centers for Disease Control https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
    1. Augustin H. Obesity and prostate cancer: an ambiguous relationship. Eur J Cancer. 2007;43:1114–16. - PubMed
    1. Baillargeon J, Rose DP. Obesity, adipokines, and prostate cancer (review) Int J Oncol. 2006;28:737–45. review. - PubMed
    1. Fowke JH, Motley S, Dai Q, Concepcion R, Barocas DA. Association between biomarkers of obesity and risk of high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia and prostate cancer—evidence of effect modification by prostate size. Cancer Lett. 2013;328:345–52. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kasper JS, Giovannucci E. A meta-analysis of diabetes mellitus and the risk of prostate cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2006;15:2056–62. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources