Defined Green Tea Catechins in Treating Patients With Prostate Cancer Undergoing Surgery to Remove the Prostate

Criteria:

* Biopsy-proven adenocarcinoma of the prostate meeting the following criteria: organ-confined disease; treatable by prostatectomy
* PSA \< 50 ng/mL
* ECOG performance status (PS) 0-1 or Karnofsky PS 70-100%
* Bilirubin normal
* AST and ALT normal
* Creatinine normal
* Fertile patients must use effective contraception
* No uncontrolled intercurrent illness including, but not limited to, any of the following: ongoing or active infection; symptomatic congestive heart failure; unstable angina pectoris; cardiac arrhythmia; psychiatric illness or social situations that would limit study compliance
* No history of allergic reactions attributed to compounds of similar chemical or biologic composition to green tea extract
* No prior therapy for prostate cancer (i.e., hormone therapy, radiation therapy, or surgery)
* No systemic treatment (chemotherapy) and/or radiation therapy for any malignancy within the past 5 years (excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer or cancer confined to organs with surgical removal as the only treatment)
* No regular tea consumption (\> 6 servings of hot tea or 12 servings of iced tea or equivalent combination per week) within the past month
* No other concurrent investigational agents
* No other concurrent consumption of tea or tea-derived products from green, black, or oolong tea