Word: vitamins
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...separate reports, both appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers found that men who took vitamins C or E or selenium developed prostate cancer as frequently as men who did not take the vitamins. In one trial, called SELECT, which tested the preventive effects of vitamin E and selenium in more than 35,000 men, participants taking 400 IU of vitamin E daily or 200 micrograms of selenium each day, or a combination of the two, had the same rates of prostate cancer as the placebo group. In the second study, involving more than 14,000 physicians...
...were very disappointed that [supplements] didn't work to prevent prostate cancer and other cancers," says Dr. Scott Lippman, professor of medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center and lead author of the vitamin E and selenium study. "But the study illustrates the importance of establishing efficacy before recommending public health usage. There is very high consumption of these supplements, based on the assumption that they do prevent prostate cancer...
Indeed, several earlier studies had hinted that vitamins may protect against prostate cancer (as well as other cancers), but the data were conflicting. In a trial involving 29,000 Finnish subjects in which researchers tested whether vitamin E could reduce lung cancer in smokers, those taking the supplements did not enjoy a lower rate of lung cancer but did develop 34% fewer cases of prostate cancer compared to controls. In the same study, subjects taking supplements that contained a form of selenium also showed a 63% lower risk of developing prostate cancer. But a separate trial of 7,000 heart...
...Johns Hopkins, the participants of the Finnish study were cigarette smokers, and may have suffered more oxidative damage in their cells than the average person. If smoking had caused excessive damage to their cells, then they would be more likely to benefit from any antioxidant effects provided by the vitamin supplements. In other words, perhaps people with lower levels of the vitamin in their blood to start - whether or not it was due to smoking - might benefit more. Nelson's own work in a smaller study in Baltimore suggests this might be true. He showed that the protective effects...
Experts wonder whether the trial lasted long enough to uncover any benefit on breast-cancer rates. Breast cancer typically develops over a long period, anywhere from five to 20 years, and researchers believe that vitamin D's effect on curbing cancer-cell growth may be most powerful in the disease's early stages. That means that the cancers picked up in the seven-year WHI study may have already progressed beyond any potential to be influenced by the vitamin D supplementation. "This is an important study, and a well-done study, but the major question of whether vitamin...