Does Selenium + Vitamin E = Prevention?
Meanwhile, a Phase III clinical trial of 35,000 men sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is underway. Scientists want to know if a mix of selenium and vitamin E prevents prostate cancer. Doses used in the study include 400 milligrams (mg) per day of vitamin E and 200 micrograms (ug) per day of selenium (selenomethionine, not the yeast kind). Some of the subjects will take a placebo. Results for this long-term study, known as SELECT, will be released in 2012. Researchers started the SELECT trial after previous smaller studies revealed benefits — almost by accident. One study (which was actually looking at lung cancer) found men who took vitamin E had a 30 percent lower incidence of prostate cancer. Another study (originally aimed at skin cancer) showed a 50 percent decrease in prostate cancer in men who took selenium. “These are interesting agents that deserve study,” says Dr. Howard L. Parnes, chief of the cancer prevention division of NCI’s Prostate and Urologic Cancer Re
