Vitamin antioxidants, lipid peroxidation and the systemic inflammatory response in patients with prostate cancer

The relationship between lipid soluble antioxidant vitamins, lipid peroxidation, disease stage and the systemic inflammatory response were examined in healthy subjects (n = 14), patients with benign prostate hyperplasia BPH (n = 20), localized (n = 40) and metastatic (n = 38) prostate cancer. Prostate cancer patients had higher concentrations of malondialdehyde (p < 0.05) and lower circulating concentrations of lutein (p < 0.05), lycopene (p < 0.001) and beta-carotene (p < 0.05). Patients with metastatic prostate cancer, when compared with patients having localized disease, had a higher Gleason score (p < 0.01) and had more hormonal treatment, but lower concentrations of PSA (p < 0.05), alpha-tocopherol (p < or = 0.05), retinol (p < 0.01), lutein (p < 0.05) and lycopene (p < 0.01). In the prostate cancer patients, PSA was correlated with the concentrations of the lipid peroxidation product, malondialdehyde (rs= 0.353, p = 0.002). C-reactive protein was not correlated with the vitamin antioxidants nor malondialdehyde. In contrast, there was a negative correlation between malondialdehyde concentrations and both lutein (rs= -0.263, p = 0.020) and lycopene (rs= -0.269, p = 0.017). These results indicate that lower concentrations of carotenoids, in particular, lycopene reflect disease progression rather than the systemic inflammatory response in patients with prostate cancer.