Palm oil carotene concentrate may prevent the development of hormone-dependent breast cancers
Lai Leslie, et al., “ Effect of retinoic acid and palm oil concentrate on oestrone sulphatase and oestradiol-17beta hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase activities in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines”, International Journal of Cancer, Vol.88; pp : 135-138, 2000.
Palm oil carotene concentrate caused dose-dependent inhibition of estradiol stimulated growth of MCF-7, estrogen receptor positive human breast cells
Nesaretnam K, et al., “Effect of a carotene concentrate on the growth of human breast cancer cells and pS2 gene expression”, Toxicology, Vol. 151(1-3); pp : 117-126, 2000.
A group of Japanese scientists showed that various natural carotenoids have anticarcinogenic activity. Alpha-carotene showed higher potency than beta-carotene to suppress experimental carcinogenesis. Based on these results, multi-carotenoids (mixture of natural carotenoids) seems to be of interest to evaluate usefulness for practise in human cancer prevention
Nishino H, et al., “Cancer prevention by natural carotenoids”, Biofactors, Vol. 13(1-4) : pp : 89-94, 2000.
Vitamin A, alpha-carotene and lycopene were associated with strong inverse relationships with stomach cancer
De Stefani, et al., “Dietary carotenoids and risk of gastric cancer: A case-control study in Uruguay”, Eur. J. Cancer Prevention, Vol.(5); pp : 329-334, 2000.
Alpha carotene and lycopene intakes were significantly associated with a lower risk of lung cancer. The association with beta-carotene, lutein and beta-cryptoxanthin intakes were inverse but not significant
Giovannucci E, et al., “Intake of specific carotenoids and risk of lung cancer in 2 prospective US cohorts”, Am . J. Clin .Nutr., Vol. 7294); pp : 990-997,2002.
Combined administration of palm carotene and green tea polyphenols might be a candidate for chemoprevention strategy for pancreatic cancer in humans
Konishi Y, et al., “Inhibitory effects of beta-carotene, palm carotene and green tea Polyphenols on pancreatic carcinogenesis initiated by N-nitorsobis(2-oxopropyl) amine in Syrian golden hamsters”, Pancreas, Vol. 16(1); pp : 13-18, 1998.
When the cases were separated into esophageal, laryngeal and oral-pharyngeal cancer, both alpha-carotene and beta carotene were consistently and strongly associated with reduced risk at each site
Craft NE, et al, “Serum micronutrients and upper aerodigestive cancer”, Cancer Epidemiol. Biomakers Prev., Vol. 6(6); pp : 407-412, 1997.
Alpha-carotene showed higher potency than beta-carotene in suppressing experimental carcinogenesis. Further studies on various natural carotenoids besides beta-carotenes should be continued to obtain more information about potential of natural carotenoids in the field of cancer prevention
Nishino H, “Cancer prevention by natural carotenoids’, J. Cell Biochem Suppl., Vol 27; pp : 86-89, 1997.
The Japanese researchers showed that alpha-carotene but not beta-carotene reduced the number of lung tumors per mouse compared to control group. This higher potency of the anti-tumor promoting action of alpha-carotene compared to beta-carotene was confirmed in other experimental systems. These studies suggest that not only beta carotene but also other types of carotenoids such as alpha-carotene may plan an important role in cancer prevention
Murakoshi, M, et al. “Potent preventive action of alpha-carotene against carcinogenesis: Spontaneous liver carcinogenesis and promoting stage of lung and skin carcinogenesis in mice are suppressed more effectively by alpha-carotene than beta-carotene; Cancer Research , Vol. 52; pp : 6583-6587, 1992.
Natural carotene sample obtained from palm oil was proved to suppress the promoting stage of two-stage carcinogenesis of mouse skin and also inhibit the proliferation of human malignant tumor cells such as neuroblastoma GOTO cells, stomach cancer HGC-27 cell and pancreatic cancer PANC-I cells. Among the major constituents of palm carotene, alpha-carotene showed stronger anti-proliferative effect than beta-carotene. Results indicate that further investigation for not only beta-carotene but also other kinds of natural carotenes such as alpha-carotene should be carried out
Imanishi J, et al., “Anticarcinogenesis activity of natural carotenes”, C.R.Seances Soc. Biol. Fil., Vol. 183(1); pp : 85-89, 1989
Among the various individual carotenoids considered, inverse associations were observed for alpha-carotene, beta carotene and lutein/zeaxanthin for colectal cancer
La Vecchia C, et al., “Selected micronutrients and colectal cancer : A case control study from Canton of Vaud, Switzerland”, Eur. J. of Cancer, Vol.36(16); pp : 2115-2119, 2000.
The dietary intake of several carotenoids in 332 lung cancer patients was compared to that of 865 cancer free controls. After adjusting for smoking and other risk factors, researchers reported that the lowest risk of lung cancer occurred in those with the highest intake of beta-carotene, alpha- carotene, and lutein.
Le Marchand L. et al, "Intake of specific carotenoids and lung cancer risk," Cancer Epidemiology, May/June1993;2:183-187.
Alpha-carotene inhibited the growth of human cancer cells grown in the laboratory, and the higher the dose of alpha-carotene, the stronger the inhibitory effect.
Murakoshi M., et al, "Inhibitory effects of alpha-carotene an proliferation of the human neuroblastoma cell line GOTO," Journal of the national Cancer Institute, 1989;81:1649-1652.
Alpha-carotene drastically reduced the number of tumors in an animal study of liver, lung and skin cancer. The cancer fighting ability of alpha-carotene exceeded that of beta-carotene.
Murakoshi M et al,"Potent preventive action of alpha-carotene against carcinogenesis: Spontaneous liver carcinogenesis and promoting stage of lung and skin carcinogenesis in mice are suppressed more effectively by alpha-carotene than by beta-carotene," Cancer Research. December1992;52 :6583-6587.
Both alpha-and beta-carotene have chemopreventive effects on croton oil-induced tumor promotion in skin tumorigenesis
Kim-Jun H, “Inhibitory effects of alpha-and beta-carotene on croton oil-induced or enzymatic lipid peroxidation and hydroperoxide production in mouse skin epidermis”, Int. J. Biochem, Vol 25(6); pp : 911-915, 1993.
Palm fruit carotene had no mutagenic activity in vitro and in vivo tests
Nakamura T, et al., “Mutagenicity studies with palm fruit carotene”, J. Toxicol Sci., Vol. 20(5); pp : 619-627, 1995.
Higher serum level of alpha-carotene was significantly associated with decreased risk of cervical dysplasia. Decreased risk observed for the highest tertiles of beta- carotene and zeaxanthin/lutein were not statistically significant
Kawana T, el al., “Serum carotenoids and vitamins and risk of cervical dysplasia from a case control study in Japan”, Br. J . Cancer, Vol. *1(7); pp : 1234-1237, 1999.
The intake of carotenes, especially alpha-carotene, from food and supplements significantly reduce risk of ovarian cancer, predominantly in postmenopausal women
Cramer DW et al., “Carotenoids, antioxidants and ovarian cancer rish in pre- and postmenopausal women”, Int J Cancer, 1;94(1)128-34, 2001.
Risk of breast cancer increases with decreasing serum concentration of beta-carotene, lutein, alpha-carotene and beta-cryptoxanthin
Toniolo et al., “Serum carotenoids and breast cancer”, Am J Epidemiol., 15;153(12):1142-7, 2001
Indian women with breast cancer or of other sides might have low intake of carotenoids such as beta-carotene, zeaxanthin and lutein
Ito Y et al., “A study on serum carotenoid levels in breast cancer patients of Indian women in Chenai, India”, India J Epidermio., 9(5):306-14, 1999
This study results show that carotenoids may protect against the development of breast cancer
Sato R et al., “Prospective study of carotenoids, tocopherols and retenoid concentrations and the risk of breast cancer”, Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev., 11(5):451-7, 2002
Plasma levels of beta-carotene and alpha-tocopherol were inversely correlated with gastric cancer rates in Japan
Tsubono y et al., “Plasma antioxidant vitamins and carotenoids in five Japanese populations with varied mortality from gastric cancer”, Nutr Cancer, 34(1):56-61, 1999
Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine showed that carotenoids from palm fruit oil are potent chemopreventive agents.
Murakoshi et al. Papers submitted by Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Japan
Alpha-carotene is the most powerful chemopreventive agent against liver and lung tumor compared to beta-carotene and alpha-tocopherol.
Tsuda et al. (1994), “Chemopreventive potential of alpha-carotene against mouse liver and lung tumor development: comparison with beta-carotene and alpha tocopherol”. Japanese J. Cancer Res. 85: 1214-1219.
Lycopene, lutein, alpha-carotene and palm carotenes may potentially prevent colon cancer.
Narisawa et al. (1996), “Inhibitory effects of natural carotenoids, alpha carotene, beta carotene, lycopene and lutein, on colonic aberrant crypt foci formation in rat”. Cancer letters 107: 137-142
Dietary supplementation of red palm oil may have the potential to prevent estradiol induced breast cancer carcinogenesis at the initiation.
Yu et al. (2005), “Studies on the preventive effect of red palm oil on 17-beta-estradiol epoxidation and the potential against breast cancer carcinogenesis at the initiation”. Proceedings of PIPOC 2005:192-201 
