Healthcare

In 1990s, vitamins seemed promising in the prevention of prostate cancer, including other cancers risk. Moreover, after one study at that time found that men who took selenium supplements had a 65 percent lower risk of prostate cancer, and another found that vitamin E cut risk by 35 percent.
However, those findings were from trials not specifically designed to examine prostate cancer, or trials examining men who were taking vitamins for other reasons.

Therefore, recently the researchers launched two new studies to investigate the efficacy of vitamin and supplement due to prostate cancer prevention.
One study is the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT), led by Scott M. Lippman M.D., from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.and Eric A. Klein M.D. from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine.
The second study is the Physicians’ Health Study II Randomized Controlled Trial (of vitamins C and E), led by J. Michael Gaziano M.D. from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and VA Boston Healthcare System.

The Physicians’ Health Study followed participants for 10 years, while SELECT (the largest clinical trial ever run of chemoprevention for cancer) was halted early when researchers found the supplements provided no benefit.

Overall, the results showed that vitamin E alone or with additional selenium, or combination with vitamin C may not prevent the risk of prostate cancer or other types of cancer in men.
The findings just published in this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

In the first study, 35,533 cancer-free men in their 50s or older took selenium and vitamin E alone or in combination.
For instance, after several years later, the researchers found that the risk of development of prostate cancer was similar with placebo group.

In the second study among 14,641 men (some of them may have had early-stage prostate cancer), also the researchers found that a combination of vitamin E and vitamin C did not prevent prostate cancer, or any other types of cancer.

The chief scientific officer of the Prostate Cancer Foundation in Santa Monica, California, Howard Soule, PhD, commented to the findings, “It looks like these particular antioxidants are not effective.”

Meanwhile, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS), 1 in 6 men will get prostate cancer in his lifetime, and 1 in 35 will die of the disease.
The ACS estimated that in 2008, 28,660 U.S. men will die of prostate cancer, and this accounting for roughly 10 percent of all cancer-related deaths in men.

Also commenting to the findings, Durado Brooks, M.D., director of prostate cancer for the American Cancer Society, called the findings “disappointing,” nothing that for many years men have been taking the vitamins in the hopes that they would be protective.

Brook said, “there was a lot of hope in the community that vitamin E, selenium, something was going to pan out.”
According to Dr. Brooks, “right now, we don’t have any agents that we can point to and say that these agents can clearly and unambiguously and safely decrease your risk of developing prostate cancer.”

The study author of SELECT, Klein said that although some experts might argue that supplements could be effective in different doses or combinations than those used in the study, “it’s doubtful that the results would be any different.”

Neither study showed harm from taking the supplements, notes Gaziano, who participated in both studies. But this doesn’t mean people should keep doing so, he warns.

Gaziano said, “I think that the potential downside of taking something that’s not proven to be effective is that there are only so many things that we can get our patients to do.”
He added, “If we think we’re getting the benefit from the pill, we may be less inclined to do the other things that may be more difficult but we know are going to be more beneficial.”

Klein notes that in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial, the drug finasteride reduced a man’s chances of developing prostate cancer by 25 percent.

The drug tested in that trial is the same medication in the anti-baldness drug Propecia, but at a higher dose. Klein suggests that men concerned about their prostate cancer risk talk to their doctor about taking finasteride.

In addition, Gaziano said that there is also some evidence (though no firm proof) that exercising, quitting smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, and eating less fat could help prevent prostate cancer or slow the progression of the disease. Following a Mediterranean-style diet, which includes plenty of fruits and vegetables, healthy oils from fish and nuts, and moderate amounts of alcohol, may also be beneficial.

Soule advised that even pomegranate juice and broccoli may help, and they can’t hurt, “a lot of things that appear to have a scientific rationale for chemoprevention may also make you healthy.”