Vitamin E May Increase Risk of Prostate Cancer

The latest results obtained from the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT) suggest that men who take a daily vitamin E supplement may actually be increasing their likelihood of developing prostate cancer. Lead author Eric Klein, M.D., chair of the Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute at Cleveland Clinic, and colleagues found that men who took a daily dose of 400 IU of vitamin E from 2001 to 2008 had 17% more cases of prostate cancer than men who took a placebo. "For the typical man, there appears to be no benefit in taking vitamin E, and in fact, there may be some harm," said Dr. Klein. The SELECT study involved more than 35,000 men from the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Participants were assigned to one of four groups: vitamin E and Selenium; vitamin E alone; selenium alone; or placebo. The group taking vitamin E alone was the only group shown to have a statistically significant increased risk of prostate cancer.