Beer Ingredient Eyed in Prostate Cancer Prevention

But experiments in rats should not encourage guys to drink up, experts say

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

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WEDNESDAY, Dec. 9 (HealthDay News) -- An ingredient of beer may someday help ward off prostate cancer, new animal experiments suggest.

The compound in question, xanthohumol, is found in hops -- the bitter flavoring agent in beer -- and is known to block the male hormone testosterone, which plays a role in the development of prostate cancer.

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"We hope that one day we can demonstrate that xanthohumol prevents prostate cancer development, first in animal models and then in humans, but we are just at the beginning," said lead researcher Clarissa Gerhauser, group leader of cancer chemoprevention in the division of epigenomics and cancer risk factors at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg.

The findings were to be presented Dec. 9 at a conference of the American Association for Cancer Research in Houston.

Xanthohumol is a flavonoid, a group found in many plants, fruits, vegetables and spices. Studies of xanthohumol have shown that it blocks estrogen by binding to its receptor, which may lead to prevention of breast cancer, the researchers say. It's known that estrogen and testosterone receptors react in similar ways.

For this study, Gerhauser's team started with hormone-dependent prostate cancer cells and stimulated them with testosterone, which led to a massive secretion of prostate specific antigen (PSA).

"When we treated the cells together with testosterone and xanthohumol, PSA secretion was inhibited, and this was dependent on the dose of xanthohumol," Gerhauser said.

In additional experiments, the researchers found that xanthohumol binds with the receptor, preventing it from producing PSA.

Gerhauser's group found that when xanthohumol and testosterone were injected into castrated rats, xanthohumol blocked the effect of testosterone on the prostate, which potentially could lead to preventing prostate cancer.

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