Abstract
Introduction: The anticancer effect of tomato lycopene has been approved in some cancers. This study was aimed to determine the prohibitive and therapeutic effects of tomato extract on the growth of fibrosarcoma in mice.
Materials and Methods: In this experimental study 3 groups of 10 male Balb/c mice were injected subcutaneously with 5×105 WEHI-164 tumor cells in the chest area. Prevention group was fed tomato extract (5 mg) for a 4 week period (from 2 weeks before tumor cell injection up to 2 weeks after injection) and the treatment group was fed simultaneously with tumor cell injection up to two weeks after injection daily by an oral gastric tube. The tumors areas were measured and recorded on days 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 and 22. The data were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests.
Results: The results showed that the tumor areas in control group were significantly more after the intervention than two groups of treatment and prevention (p<0.05). The difference was not statistically significant between the two groups of prevention and treatment.
Conclusion: With emphasize on antioxidant of tomato, it seems that tomato extract has an important role in prevention and control fibrosarcoma growth.