Lycopene Inhibits the Initiation and Progression of Liver Cancer in Vitro and Vivo

By Kyle J. Norton

Liver cancer is a medical and chronic condition associated with cell growth disorderly in the liver tissue.

Liver cell DNA alternation is the most common cause of liver cancer. Researchers as of today, no not know the exact cause of liver cancer. They also can not explain why some people are susceptible to liver cancer while others with the same health condition in the same family do not.

The liver is the largest internal organ that only filters the blood from the intestines before passing them to other parts of the body, but also produces bile to build strong cell membranes, aid digestion, production of steroid hormones and vitamin D.

Believe it or not, the liver also plays a critical role to inhibit the overexpression of free radical through its production of antioxidant enzymes.

Most cases of liver cancer start in the cells on the surface of the inner lining of liver tissue before penetrating into deeper layers to form a tumor.

According to the statistics, liver cancer is the sixth most common cancer worldwide, with 782,000 new cases diagnosed in 2012 with 83% in less developed countries,

The world with the most common incidence of liver cancer in Asia and Africa compared to the lowest incidence in Europe and in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Dr. Qiu-Ye Lan, the lead scientist in the evaluation of dietary patterns and primary liver cancer in Chinese adults wrote, " ( in the comparison of 3 different diets) Three dietary patterns were identified: 1) an urban prudent dietary pattern (UPDP) characterized by high in dairy products, eggs, mushrooms, nuts, and soy foods, but low in refined grains; 2) a traditional Cantonese dietary pattern (TCDP) consisting of a high intake of fruit and vegetables, fish, Cantonese soup, and Chinese herb tea; and 3) a high meat and preserved food pattern (MPFP)".

And, "Our findings suggest that the UPDP and TCDP were associated with lower, whereas the MPFP with a higher, risk of PLC".

In other words, high meat and preserved food diet are associated with a substantial risk of liver cancer developing.

Lycopene is a phytochemical in the class of carotenoid, a natural pigment with no vitamin A activity found abundantly in tomatoes and other red fruits and vegetables, such as red carrots, watermelons, and papayas,

Tomatoes provide about 80% of the lycopene in the world diet. In plants, lycopene protects the host against excessive photodamage and perform various functions in photosynthesis.

With an aim to find a natural compound for the treatment of liver cancer, the effects of lycopene on NOX4 metastatic action.

On human liver adenocarcinoma S-Hep-1 cells, lycopene (0.1-5 μM) exerted a strong effect in the inhibition of cancer cells metastasis.

At the concentration of 2.5 μM, lycopene exhibited the greatest activity against the expression NOX4 protein in orchestrating the production of ROS.

Furthermore, lycopene also decreased the expression of transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) migration, invasion, and adhesion activity and matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) and MMP-2 in facilitating the cancer cells progression and metastasis.

Based on the finding, researchers said, "the downregulation of NOX4 could mimic lycopene by inhibiting cell migration and the activities of MMP-9 and MMP-2 during the incubation with or without TGF-β on SK-Hep-1 cells".

Additionally, in the examined the tomato extract (LycT) effects on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development, researchers examined results of female Balb/c mice (8-10 wk) assigned to 4 groups: control, NDEA (200 mg NDEA i.p./kg body weight, cumulative), LycT (5 mg lycopene orally/kg body weight; 3 times a week), and LycT + NDEA. LycT treatment began 2 wk before NDEA administration and continued until the end of the 10 wk study.

According to the tested differentiation, LycT treatment showed a significantly activity in reducing levels of liver oxidative stress markers associated with the development of liver cancer, including alanine transaminases (ALT), aspartate transaminases (AST), and alkaline phosphatases (ALP), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), urea, A/G ratio, and bilirubin.

Furthermore, proteins associated with cancer cells migration, proliferation, angiogenesis, hypoxia, and metastasis also were inhibited by LycT treatment, compared to NDEA group.

Collectively, Dr. Bhatia N, the lead scientist wrote, "prophylactic dietary supplementation with LycT may counteract HCC progression and/or protect against disease onset".

Taken altogether, lycopene may be considered supplements for the prevention and treatment of liver cancer, pending on the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Intake of lycopene in the form of supplement should be taken with extreme care to prevent overdose acute liver toxicity.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Lycopene Inhibits Metastasis of Human Liver Adenocarcinoma SK-Hep-1 Cells by Downregulation of NADPH Oxidase 4 Protein Expression by Jhou BY1, Song TY2, Lee I3, Hu ML1,4, Yang NC. (PubMed)
(2) Lycopene Enriched Tomato Extract Inhibits Hypoxia, Angiogenesis, and Metastatic Markers in early Stage N-Nitrosodiethylamine Induced Hepatocellular Carcinoma by Bhatia N1, Gupta P1, Singh B1,2, Koul A. (PubMed)
(3) Dietary patterns and primary liver cancer in Chinese adults: a case-control study by Qiu-Ye Lan,1 Gong-Cheng Liao,1 Rui-Fen Zhou,1 Pei-Yan Chen,1 Xiao-Yan Wang,1Min-Shan Chen,2 Yu-Ming Chen,1 and Hui-Lian Zhu. (PMC)