You may have heard that vitamin E and selenium supplements can prevent prostate cancer. Not so, according to new research.
Results from a five-year study indicate that vitamin E and selenium supplements, taken either alone or together, did nothing to prevent prostate cancer. The trial, funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and branches of the National Institutes of Health, comprised over 35,000 men age 50 and older in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.
Research showed that that the five-year rate of prostate cancer diagnosed in the men studied was 4.56 percent for those taking selenium and vitamin E combined, 4.93 percent for men taking only vitamin E, 4.56 percent in the group supplementing with selenium alone, and 4.43 percent for participants who took a placebo. The small difference in percentages is not statistically significant.
The study was undertaken after unrelated research showed promise for the two supplements: in a 1996 trial aimed at skin cancer, men who took selenium had 52 percent fewer diagnoses of prostate cancer than those who did not take the supplement; a 1998 study produced 32 percent fewer cases of prostate cancer for male smokers who took vitamin E to determine whether it might prevent lung cancer.
Prostate cancer, which is second only to skin cancer as the most common cancer among men in the United States, is expected to be diagnosed in 186,320 men in 2008. Another 28,660 men will succumb to the disease.
Although the study was primarily designed to evaluate the connection between the two supplements and prostate cancer, sub-studies examined the effects of vitamin E and selenium on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and the development of cataracts and macular degeneration, as well as evaluating men who were diagnosed with colon polyps during the primary study.
“Finding methods to prevent and treat prostate cancer remains a priority for the NCI, and with the aid of new molecular diagnostic tools and applications, we hope to continue to make headway in reducing deaths and new cases of this disease,” said NCI director John E. Niederhuber, M.D. “The science of cancer prevention is also leading toward individualized, molecular prevention, in which we will calculate risk and design preventive steps based on an individual’s genome.”
“Effect of Selenium and Vitamin E on Risk of Prostate Cancer and Other Cancers,” by S. M. Lippman, E. A. Klein, P. J. Goodman, et al. Journal of the American Medical Association. Published online December 9, 2008. Print version will appear in January 2009.
See Related Articles
See Boost Your Prostate Health for tips to prevent prostate cancer.
For more tips on creating good health to prevent prostate cancer, see Nutrition and Prostate Cancer: Eat Right to Lower Your Risk.
