The current study is one of several recent looks at the link between selenium
levels and prostate cancer. "Our study is the largest in terms of the (number of
participants) and the follow-up period," lead author Dr. Haojie Li, from Harvard
Medical School in Boston, told Reuters Health.
As reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the researchers analyzed data from men enrolled in
the Physicians' Health Study. When the study began, the men, who were
cancer-free at the time, gave blood samples that were tested for selenium among
other things.
Selenium levels from 586 men who later developed prostate cancer were
compared with levels from 577 similar men who didn't develop prostate cancer.
Men with the highest selenium levels were 48 percent less likely to develop
advanced prostate cancer than men with the lowest levels. Moreover, this
association was observed for men diagnosed before and after PSA testing to
detect early prostate cancer came into widespread use in October 1990.
High selenium levels were linked to a reduction in the overall risk of
prostate cancer, Li said. "However, on further analysis, only the association
with advanced cancer," was statistically significant, not early cancer.
A specially designed study, "known as the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer
Prevention Trial (SELECT), is underway," Li noted, and this should definitively
answer whether selenium use is beneficial in preventing prostate cancer.
SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, May 5, 2004.
