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Selenium may slow advanced prostate cancer
Source: (cancerfacts.com)
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
BOSTON – May 5, 2004 – Men with higher levels of a nutritional mineral in their blood appear to have a lower risk of advanced prostate cancer, according to a new study.
The researchers led by Dr. Haojie Li of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, showed that higher levels of the mineral selenium in the blood are associated with a decreased risk of advanced prostate cancer, indicating that selenium could slow prostate cancer tumor progression.
In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Scott M. Lippman, of the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and colleagues say the new study confirms similar findings of other studies.
"This new study, continues to support the initial impression of this agent's tremendous potential as a prostate cancer preventative agent." The study and the editorial appear in this week's Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Li and colleagues analyzed blood plasma samples, obtained in 1982, from a subset of healthy men enrolled in the Physicians' Health Study. They compared the selenium levels from 586 men who later developed prostate cancer to selenium 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. The association was also observed for men diagnosed before and after PSA testing to detect early prostate cancer came into widespread use in October 1990, but only the link to men who had advanced prostate cancer was statistically significant, not early cancer.
Based on the earlier studies showing an apparent ability for selenium to prevent prostate cancer, the National Cancer Institute has funded a large population study aimed at determining the role of selenium in prostate cancer prevention. That trial, called the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT), is under way, and is expected to supply the most definitive answers to date.
SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, May 5, 2004.
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