Dietary agents in prevention of prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of internal malignancy among men worldwide, with an annual incidence of 679,000 cases, and an annual mortality load of 220,000 deaths, making it the sixth leading cause of cancer mortality among men. It is generally on the increase. Environmental and lifestyle factors may have an aetiological role in prostate cancer and hence may provide potential targets for future intervention. In fact, because of the disease high prevalence, slowly progressive nature, and long latency prostate cancer is a very good candidate for chemoprevention. Dietary agents have gained considerable attention as chemopreventive agents against prostate cancer. The methodology for this review included computerized literature searches of the PubMed database using the keywords 'chemoprevention of prostate cancer' from 1992 to 2007. This mini-review examines the influence of plant-derived dietary agents for which articles reported statistically significant effects in the management of prostate cancer.