UPDATE - Issue 18 - Summer 2004
Largest cancer trial well underway
SELECT (the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial) is the largest-ever prevention trial for prostate cancer. Small-scale studies have already suggested that selenium and vitamin E (alone or in combination) may reduce the risk of developing prostate cancer by 60 percent and 30 percent respectively. Now these initial findings need to be confirmed once and for all.
SELECT set out in 2001 to do this by enrolling 32,000 healthy men over 55 in North America and tracking their progress over a ten-year period. Initial simple tests confirmed that the men did not appear to have prostate cancer. Volunteers were placed randomly in one of four equal-sized groups taking Vitamin E, Selenium, both Vitamin E and Selenium and, fourthly, placebo. Telephone follow-up occurs every three months and all participants receive an annual medical examination. After ten years, sufficient statistical evidence should be available to confirm or deny the results of the earlier smaller-scale studies.
If one judges that a trial of such magnitude and cost would not have been undertaken if the probability of a successful result was not pretty high, then one could take action immediately. There is nothing to lose and much to be gained by taking Selenium (200mcg per day) and Vitamin E (400iu per day). Both are available without prescription at chemists and health-food shops.