Vitamin E Linked to Prostate Cancer
Researchers studying vitamin E as a method to prevent prostate cancer instead found a shocking result: the supplement slightly increases the chance of prostate cancer in men. The new findings are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The study was a follow-up of an earlier large-scale cancer prevention trial conducted three years ago. The trial was stopped after researchers couldn’t determine that supplements of vitamin E, selenium or a combination of the two nutrients could prevent prostate cancer. In the follow-up, about half the trial’s original 35,000-plus participants found a 17% increase in prostate cancer, compared with men who took a placebo. For every 1,000 men, 76 who took vitamin E supplements got prostate cancer, compared with 65 men who took placebo.
The study authors weren’t clear on why vitamin E appeared to raise the risk of cancer. The recommended dietary allowance of vitamin E is currently 15 milligrams for adults. Prostate cancer is the cause of about 34,000 deaths in the U.S. annually.