This study is a literature review that discusses the likelihood of dietary carotenoids offering protection against cancer. Carotenoids have been demonstrating a protective action against carcinogenesis both in vitro and in vivo, in animals and humans. Among them, beta-cryptoxanthin, fucoxanthin, astaxanthin, capsanthin, crocetin and phytoene have been little explored and literature is still very lacking and little conclusive. Experimental studies with humans have shown beta-carotene to have no effect or reverse effect; however, they have never included intervenient and interactive variables that should have been controlled. Scientific evidence based on epidemiological studies and recent experimental assays and the elucidation of phytochemical activity mechanisms associated with greater protection against cancer, a diet rich in carotenoids from fruits and vegetables may protect against carcinogenesis.
feeding; carotenoids; fruit; neoplasms; chemoprevention; vegetables
