NCI, SWOG to Study Vitamin E, Selenium and Prostate Cancer

NCI, SWOG to Study Vitamin E, Selenium and Prostate Cancer

WASHINGTON--The National Cancer Institute (NCI) (www.nci.nih.gov) is looking for healthy men age 55 and older to participate in the first study to research the effects of selenium and vitamin E on prostate cancer. The Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT) will include a total of 32,400 men, and is the largest prostate cancer prevention study to date.

Co-launched by the San Antonio, Texas-based Southwest Oncology Group(SWOG) (www.swog.org), this study will span 12 years. Men are being selected from more than 400 sites in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. The study investigators hope to recruit study participants within the next five years to allow each man to be studied for seven years. Healthy men age 55 and older are being asked to participate; African American men (age 50 and older) are being sought out in particular because this is the demographic most at risk for developing prostate cancer.

The men will be divided into four groups: one will take 200 mcg of selenium, another will take 400 mg of vitamin E, the third group will take both supplements and the fourth will receive a placebo. In addition to prostate cancer onset, researchers will assess the impact of selenium and vitamin E on the incidence of lung and colon cancer. Within the course of this study, scientists will note the molecular and genetic markers of cancer risk and associations between diet and cancer; quality of life will also be examined.

"Previous research with vitamin E and selenium, in studies focused on other kinds of cancer, suggested that these nutrients might prevent prostate cancer," said Charles Colman, J., M.D., chairman of SWOG and the director of the San Antonio Cancer Institute in Texas. Prior research has reported that selenium may prevent nonmelanoma skin cancer and that vitamin E (in a study investigating its and beta carotene's effects on lung cancer) may reduce prostate cancer by 32 percent.

The companies providing the products for the study are Parsippany, N.J.-based Roche Vitamins Inc., Piscataway, N.J.-based Sabinsa Corp., Greenville, S.C.-based Nutricia Manufacturing USA Inc. and Ontario, Canada-based BioAdvantex Pharma Inc. For more information, call NCI's Cancer Information Service at (800) 4-CANCER.