Nutrients 2010, 2(2), 99-115; doi:10.3390/nu2020099
Article

Assessment of Information to Substantiate a Health Claim on the Prevention of Prostate Cancer by Lignans

Niina M. Saarinen 1,* email, Juhani Tuominen 2 email, Liisa Pylkkänen 3,4 email and Risto Santti 5 email
1 Functional Foods Forum, University of Turku, Turku, 20014, Finland 2 Department of Statistics, University of Turku, Turku, 20014, Finland 3 Department of Oncology, University of Turku, Turku, 20014, Finland 4 Medical School, University of Tampere, Tampere, 33014, Finland 5 Institute of Biomedicine, University of Turku, Turku, 20014, Finland
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 14 December 2009 / Accepted: 25 January 2010 / Published: 28 January 2010
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Isoflavones and Lignans)
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Abstract: Lignans and their in vivo metabolites, especially enterolactone (ENL), have attracted substantial interest as potential chemopreventive agents for prostate cancer. Preclinical and clinical interventions performed with lignan-rich flaxseed that use surrogate biomarkers as endpoints suggest that lignans may attenuate prostate carcinogenesis in individuals with increased risk or with diagnosed cancer. No unequivocal prostate cancer risk reduction has been found for lignans in epidemiological studies, suggesting that lignan concentrations found in populations consuming a regular non-supplemented diet are not chemopreventive in prostate cancer. Presumably, the main obstacles in assessing the efficacy of food lignans is limited knowledge of the serum and tissue lignan concentrations required for the putative prevention. Further clinical studies performed with the purified compounds are required to substantiate a health claim.
Keywords: lignan; phytoestrogen; diet; prostate cancer; health claim; surrogate biomarker

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MDPI and ACS Style

Saarinen, N.M.; Tuominen, J.; Pylkkänen, L.; Santti, R. Assessment of Information to Substantiate a Health Claim on the Prevention of Prostate Cancer by Lignans. Nutrients 2010, 2, 99-115.

AMA Style

Saarinen NM, Tuominen J, Pylkkänen L, Santti R. Assessment of Information to Substantiate a Health Claim on the Prevention of Prostate Cancer by Lignans. Nutrients. 2010; 2(2):99-115.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Saarinen, Niina M.; Tuominen, Juhani; Pylkkänen, Liisa; Santti, Risto. 2010. "Assessment of Information to Substantiate a Health Claim on the Prevention of Prostate Cancer by Lignans." Nutrients 2, no. 2: 99-115.

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