Wheat bran decreases prostate cancer in Tramp mice

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Dietary antioxidants have potential for preventing or reducing the incidence of several types of cancer. This dietary intervention study investigated a high-antioxidant variety of wheat bran fed to Tramp mice, an animal model of prostate cancer, for 20 weeks. The diets were isocaloric, contained equal amounts of fiber and equal amounts of nitrogen, with the vitamin and mineral mix comparable to the AIN 93G diet. Wheat bran was incorporated in dietary concentrations of 0, 8, 16, and 32%. The control (0%) group included 24 mice and each of the wheat bran groups was composed of 25 mice. There were no differences in terminal body weights or the weights of the entire male reproductive tract, prostate gland, kidneys, liver, brain, testes or testicular fat pad. Prostate tissue was graded on a scale from 1 to 6 (1=normal, 2=low grade prostatic intra-epithelial neoplasia, 3=high grade prostatic intra-epithelial neoplasia, 4=well-differentiated carcinoma, 5=moderately differentiated carcinoma, 6=poorly differentiated carcinoma). Cumulative tissue (tumor) scores ranged from 3.6 to 4.6, with the 16% wheat bran group having the lowest cumulative tumor score. The percentage of animals in each group with prostatic carcinomas ranged from 40 to 60%, with the 16% wheat bran group having the lowest percentage. In conclusion, the results of this study may lead to the development of wheat-containing products for human consumption which may contribute to a reduction in the incidence of prostate cancer. In subsequent investigations we plan to identify specific wheat bran antioxidants responsible for these results.