Study: Vitamins E and C Fail to Prevent Cancer in Men

By RONI CARYN RABIN

19 nov 2008--A large clinical trial of almost 15,000 male doctors taking vitamins E and C for up to 10 years has found that neither supplement had any effect on cancer rates, including cancer of the prostate.

The study comes on the heels of a disappointing finding regarding vitamin E reported late last month. After following 35,000 men taking selenium and vitamin E, investigators halted their trial because no benefit was seen and in some supplement users there appeared to be a slight increase in the risk of cancer or diabetes.

An author of the current study, an abstract of which was presented on Monday at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Washington, D.C., said his trial found neither risk nor benefit to use of the vitamins.

“The good news is you don’t appear to be hurting yourself ,” said Howard D. Sesso, an assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. But, he added, “There’s very little evidence to recommend taking these supplements for prevention of cancer, particularly in the case of vitamin E.”

The evidence regarding vitamin C is not as clear, since fewer large trials of vitamin C have been carried out, he said.

Dr. Andrew Shao, vice president for scientific and regulatory affairs at the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade association representing the supplement industry, said the group of physicians who participated in the trial were not necessarily representative of the general population. If they were healthier overall and ate a more nutritious diet, he said, it would be hard to detect a clear difference between the supplement users and those taking a placebo.

“Do we really have a placebo group — people with zero exposure? None of these physicians had zero vitamin C and E,” he said.

In another arm of the physicians’ study, researchers are attempting to evaluate the effects of multivitamin use, Mr. Sesso said. “This will address another question: what about taking the vitamins all in combination? That starts to mimic what we get in the diet.”

“At the end of the day,” he added, “this serves as a reminder that we should get back to basics: keeping your body weight in check, being physically active, not smoking and following a good diet.”