Introduction: A number of studies suggest that the low incidence of prostate cancer as well as benign prostatic enlargement in Asia depends on the extended consumption of phyto-oestrogens in these parts of the world. In most Asian men, phyto-oestrogen levels are multiple higher compared to Austrian (European) men. The aim of our study was to evaluate, according to the East-West decline, whether there were significant differences within the Austrian population. We compared prostate phyto-oestrogen tissue levels of men living in three different geographical regions of Austria. We further compared men living in rural and urban environments. Material and Methods: Prostatic tissue samples of 103 men undergoing surgery for benign prostatic hyperplasia or prostate cancer were collected and frozen at –40°C. In tissue samples, enterolactone (representative for lignans) and genistein levels (representative for isoflavones) were determined in duplicate by monoclonal antibody-based immunoassays. We subsequently compared tissue levels of men living in rural and urban environments and different geographical regions of Austria. Results: Prostatic enterolactone tissue levels were similar in men living in an urban (median 19.1 ng/g dry weight, range 1.5–76.4) or rural environment (median 15.7 range 0.6–140.6) p = 0.99. The respective values for genistein were 20.5 ng/g dry weight (range 4.6–47.4) and 9.3 (range 0.1–156.7) p = 0.77. Furthermore, enterolactone (p = 0.1) and genistein (p = 0.65) levels were similar in three different geographic regions in Austria. Conclusion: No significant differences regarding genistein and enterolactone were found between our study populations. However, we found a wide variation between individual patients.

Keywords:
Phyto-oestrogens, Prostate cancer, Genistein, Enterolactone
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© 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel
2006
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