Do Selenium And Vitamin E Prevent Prostate Cancer?

The SELECT trial wa recently published ( December 2008) in the Journal Of the Amercian Medical Association. The SELECT trial looked at whether consuming vitamin E, selenium, or both reduced the risk of developing prostate cancer.

The study was sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and began in Aug. 2001 and ultimately involved more than 35,000 men in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

Between Aug. 2001 and October 2008, the participants in the trial  received one of four possible regimens: selenium alone, vitamin E alone, selenium and Vitamin E together, or a placebo containing neither selenium or Vitamin E.

All of the enrolled subjects were monitored by physicians for the development of prostate cancer.

After analyzing the data, it was concluded that taking vitamin E, selenium or both did not cut down on the number of cases of prostate cancer that developed. Actually, the study showed a slight but not significant increase in the incidence of prostate cancer among the men who took only vitamin E.

Previous studies had suggested that both selenium and Vitamin E reduced the risk of developing prostate cancer.

The SELECT trial was initially scheduled to run for 8 years but the results after the 5 year period led to the cancellation of the last 3 years of the study.