2.2.3. Prostate Cancer

Following breast cancer is the prostate cancer, which is responsible for 7.1% of the total cancer deaths. Similar with the findings on γ-tocotrienol, γ-tocopherol was also found to have antiproliferation effect on the human prostate cancer cell line PC-3 [142] and that intake of sesamin, sesamolin or sesame seed oil in general [143] has a significant impact on the plasma levels of tocopherols in humans [144]. The presence of γ-tocopherol becomes more evident with sesamin intake and at low levels of α-tocopherol [145]. It was reported that sesamin prevents the tocopherol from being metabolized by inhibiting CYP3A-dependent carboxychroman production to which tocopherol is metabolized to [146]. The same lignan was also found effective against the solid tumor cell line DU145 and the 50% inhibitory sesamin dose was 60.2 μmol/L [128].
