Lycopene Supplementation for Patients Under Cancer Therapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Abstract

Introduction: Lycopene supplementation has been considered potentially useful as an adjuvant cancer therapy according to its anticancer properties. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of lycopene supplementation on outcome improvement in patients with cancer therapy. As a secondary aim, we conducted a meta analysis to investigate the efficacy of lycopene supplementation on circulating lycopene concentration in patients with cancer therapy.Methods: A systematic and comprehensive search was performed in electronic databases, including PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, SCOPUS, EMBASE, MedNar, and OpenGrey up to March 2023. The inclusion criteria were randomized controlled trials conducted on patients under cancer therapy (i.e., radiotherapy, chemotherapy, surgery, etc.) supplementing with lycopene. Data extraction and analysis: two different evaluators screened and collected literature independently. Information regarding the study design, participants, intervention, and dependent outcomes was extracted, and the bias of the study was assessed. Additionally, separate random-effect meta-analyses were performed to examine the effects of lycopene supplementation on circulating lycopene concentration in patients under cancer therapy.Results: The initial search retrieved 7 565 articles of which eight met the inclusion criteria. Lycopene supplementation did not modify cancer hallmarks in these studies. However, despite the heterogeneity between studies, we show that, compared with control, lycopene supplementation had moderate effects on circulating lycopene concentration in patients under cancer therapy (pooled mean difference, 0.1361; 95% CI [0.0574; 0.2148], P = .0007).Conclusions: Our study shows that lycopene supplementation does not modify the main hallmarks of cancer, but it increases circulating lycopene concentration in patients under cancer therapy, which could have a positive impact on potential clinical and molecular outcomes in cancer patients.