A higher intake by postmenopausal women of the natural antioxidant lycopene, found in foods like tomatoes, watermelon and papaya, may lower the risk of renal cell carcinoma, a type of kidney cancer.A team led by Cathryn Bock, Ph.D., M.P.H., associate professor of Oncology at Wayne State University’s School of Medicine, made the conclusion after analyzing data from 96,196 women nationwide and in Detroit who enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative from 1993 to 1998 and were followed through July 2013 by participating initiative sites, including Wayne State University.”We were surprised to observe a protective effect of lycopene, as several previous studies in other populations did not detect a similar relationship,” Bock said.The results are explained in “Antioxidant micronutrients and the risk of renal cell carcinoma in the Women’s Health Initiative cohort,” featured in the Feb. 15 issue of Cancer.
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Gaylord T. Hoffert, MD 