Selenium supplementation and prostate cancer risk

• in a study investigating whether selenium and/or vitamin E supplementation (either 200 µg of selenomethionine or 400 IU of synthetic vitamin E, given orally alone or combined for a median of 5.5 years) would prevent prostate cancer the authors concluded that:
  • "...SELECT has definitively demonstrated that selenium, vitamin E, or selenium with vitamin E (at the tested doses and formulations) did not prevent prostate cancer in the generally healthy, heterogeneous population of men in SELECT..."
    
    
• a further study investigated whether vitamin E supplentation or vitamin C supplementation might prevent prostate cancer or reduce total cancer risk
  • in this large, long-term trial of male physicians, neither vitamin E nor C supplementation reduced the risk of prostate or total cancer (2)

Reference:

• 1. Lippman SM et al. Effect of selenium and vitamin E on risk of prostate cancer and other cancers: the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT). JAMA. 2009 Jan 7;301(1):39-51
• 2. Gaziano JM et al.Vitamins E and C in the prevention of prostate and total cancer in men: the Physicians' Health Study II randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2009 Jan 7;301(1):52-62.