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Higher Serum Vitamin E Levels Linked to Lower Prostate Cancer Risk: Presented at AACR

By Charlene Laino

ORLANDO, FL --March 30, 2004 -- The two major vitamin E fractions, alpha-tocopherol and gamma-tocopherol, appear to lower the risk of developing prostate cancer, according to a prospective nested case–control study conducted in Finnish men.

Stephanie J. Weinstein, MS, PhD, Staff Scientist, Nutritional Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, United States, presented the findings here on March 28^th at the American Association for Cancer Research 95^th Annual Meeting.

This study was conducted in a cohort of the previously reported Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study (ATBC), a trial conducted in nearly 30,000 Finnish men, which unexpectedly showed that 32% fewer men who took 50 mg of alpha-tocopherol for 5 to 8 years developed prostate cancer.

The present study sought to determine whether there was also an association between baseline serum levels of alpha- and gamma-tocopherol and prostate cancer risk, Dr. Weinstein said.

The researchers selected from the ATBC cohort 100 patients with prostate cancer and 200 controls who were matched for age, date of baseline fasting serum collection and intervention. Conditional logistic regression models, adjusted for age, serum cholesterol and body mass index were used to calculate odds ratios for tertiles of the serum tocopherol levels.

Higher baseline serum concentrations of alpha-tocopherol and gamma-tocopherol were inversely associated with prostate cancer risk, results showed. Compared with men in the lowest tertile of alpha-tocopherol levels, men in the highest tertile were 53% less likely to develop prostate cancer (P = .05). Men in the highest tertile of gamma-tocopherol were 39% less likely to develop the cancer than those in the lowest tertile (P = .12).

These associations were slightly stronger in the 10% of men who had been taking vitamin E supplements at baseline, with a somewhat stronger association for the group taking alpha-tocopherol. Dr. Weinstein said that supplementation enhanced the results, but not to a significant extent.

Since the reduced prostate cancer risk could be attributed to dietary vitamin E alone in 90% of the men, "the findings support recommendations to consume a healthy diet high in fruits and vegetables and low in saturated fat intake," she concluded. Nuts and seeds, whole grains, vegetable oils, beans and peas are all good sources of vitamin E.

Dr. Weinstein presented the results on behalf of her co-researchers M.E. Wright, I.B. King, P.R. Taylor, J. Virtamo, and D. Albanes of the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, and the National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland.


[Study title: Higher Serum ALPHA-Tocopherol and GAMMA-Tocopherol Are Associated With Lower Prostate Cancer Risk. Abstract 1096]

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