Currently, there is tremendous research ongoing into what dietary or lifestyle changes patients can undertake to reduce the chances of prostate cancer and improve prostate health.

Nutritional changes: Selenium, zinc, pomegranate juice, finasteride, soy products, lycopenes, low fat diet, and antioxidants have all been investigated to prevent or lessen the severity of prostate cancer. None have become standard recommendation. However, there is some data to suggest that a diet low in fat, high lycopene diet (such as a tomato rich mediterranean diet), and soy products may be beneficial.

In fact, worldwide incidence of prostate cancer shows that it is lowest in Asia, and dietary factors, especially the increased consumption of soy in Asia, are thought to be partly the reason.

Regarding selenium and Vit E, the results of the world's largest clinical trial on these vitamins, the SELECT trial, were just published in 2009 and did not show any benefit of Vit E or selenium in preventing prostate cancer.

Lifestyle changes: Obesity may increase the risk of prostate cancer and weight loss is recommended to everyone in conjunction with a healthy diet.

Herbal remedies: Saw Palmetto is often taken by people and has some similarity to medications that are currently prescribed for treatment of BPH. There is little to show any benefit in prostate cancer.

Medications: In 2010, new research was presented on the benefits of dutasteride in reducing the risk of prostate cancer in patients higher risk for getting the disease. This is generally a well tolerated oral medicine that is FDA approved for benign prostate enlargement. However, results from this large randomized trial suggest that it may also be beneficial in reducing the risk of prostate cancer. In the past, finasteride, a similar medication, was also shown to reduce the risk of prostate cancer but has not been recommended by doctors partly because of concerns that it could increase the risk of aggressive prostate cancers. That does not appear to be the case for dutasteride.