Food & Beverages

Biography

Biography: Hasan Mukhtar

Abstract

One way to control cancer is through chemoprevention, which refers to the administration of synthetic or naturally occurring agents to block, reverse, or delay the process of carcinogenesis. For a variety of reasons, the most important of which is human acceptance, for chemopreventive intervention, naturally occurring diet-based agents are preferred. While many dietary substances have been shown to prevent cancer, at least in preclinical models, much less is known about the effect of beverages on cancer prevention. Because among males, prostate cancer has become the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in North America, with similar trends in many Western and developing countries, our focus has been on prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is an ideal candidate disease for chemopreventive intervention, because it grows very slowly, likely for decades, before symptoms arise and a diagnosis is finally established: it has a long latency period, and it is typically diagnosed in men >50 years of age We will present evidence based on preclinical studies that oral consumption of polyphenolic anti-oxidants derived from green tea and pomegranate exhibit remarkable prostate cancer chemopreventive effects. Human clinical trials with these compounds are also showing encouraging results. Much is known about cancer preventive effects of resveratrol, a constituent of red wine. It is a challenge to custom-tailor these nature gift molecules as cocktails in concentrations that can easily be consumedas a beverage by humans for delaying prostate and other cancers.