Dr. Johnston describes a 2025 analysis of 21 prospective studies, with over 108,000 cancer cases and 10,000 deaths, linking higher blood lycopene to lower cancer mortality, lung cancer death and breast cancer incidence. He also cites lab findings. The data are observational, so they show association only.
I've been a gardener my whole life. As the father of 10 children, I tried to supplement our very expensive grocery bill with vegetables grown from a half-acre garden and our 10 fruit trees. We would can about 150 to 200 Mason jars full of fruits and vegetables every year. I tried to make it fun, but boy, that kitchen was a sticky mess at the end of the 3-day marathon of canning vegetables.
One of my fondest memories was taking my youngest at the time, 2-year-old Josiah, into the garden with me on my shoulders, and I set him down to harvest some vegetables. He crawled a few feet away and shoved a rotten tomato into his mouth. I laughed and tried to get it out of his mouth real quick, but I got a picture of him with that slimy red grin and a smooshed tomato in his hand, and it remains one of my fondest memories.
Years later, I learned something quite fascinating about the humble tomato. This is a very special vegetable. Tomatoes contain lycopene. It's the natural pigment responsible for their beautiful red color.
In 2025, scientists published a remarkable analysis of 21 prospective studies documenting more than 108,000 cancer studies and more than 10,000 deaths. They found that people with the highest blood levels of lycopene had a 24% lower risk of dying from cancer. And when they looked specifically at lung cancer, higher blood lycopene was associated with a 35% lower risk of death. The analysis also found a 14% lower incidence of breast cancer in women with the highest lycopene levels.
Looking at all FDA chemotherapy approved drugs from 2006 to 2023, only 22% were approved with a study demonstrating survival benefit. Imfinzi, for example, an immunotherapy drug which costs $515,000 for one treatment, got FDA approval with zero survival benefit established in the study earning its approval.
Laboratory research provides another intriguing piece of this puzzle. Taking lycopene can interfere with cancer cell proliferation and promote apoptosis, the process by which cancer cells implode. And this is really interesting. Lycopene is one of those substances that gets easier to absorb when you cook it. And it's even more easy to absorb if you put a little olive oil in it. So perhaps those hundreds of jars of canned spaghetti sauce from my garden was doing a little bit more than feeding my hungry kids.
Here's the research. You decide.
Educational research summary, not medical advice. Talk with your oncologist and pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any treatment or supplement.