The active ingredients in green tea are called polyphenols. In 2008, the FDA found benefits from green tea in treating prostate cancer to be inconclusive. This prompted researchers at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center to conduct an open-label, single-arm, Phase II clinical trail. Twenty-six men participated in the small study. They ranged in age from 41 to 68, and were all suffering from prostate cancer and scheduled for radical prostatectomy surgery. They were given the equivalent of 12 cups of green tea a day for an average of 34 days. This was 1.3 gram of polyphenon E (EGCG). On the day before their scheduled surgery, the men were reevaluated. The biomarkers for prostate cancer were reduced in each of the men. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) was reduced by an average of almost 19%. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was reduced by 9.9%, and prostate specific antigen (PSA) was reduced by 10.4%. Some of the men showed numbers reduced by as much as one third.