October 11, 2011
Ralph Sanderson decided to be in an experiment to see whether vitamin E could prevent him from getting prostate cancer. He was healthy and had no family history of the disease.
"I had a couple of friends who had prostate cancer and I thought this would be worth doing," he said.
Now new findings show the vitamin E Sanderson took has actually put him at higher risk for the disease.
"Men who took vitamin E alone were at a 17 percent increased risk of developing prostate cancer," said Dr. Eric Klein of the Cleveland Clinic, who is one of the study's authors.
The study looked at about 35,000 healthy men who took vitamin E, the mineral selenium or a placebo.
"We really don't know why men who took vitamin E are at higher risk of getting prostate cancer. Interestingly, men who took vitamin E and selenium together were not at higher risk, so there must be some interesting biology there yet, but we haven't figured it out," Klein said.
The daily dose of vitamin E in the study was much more than what's found in over the counter multivitamins.
Sanderson, now 68, is in good health and has no regrets participating in the research.
"At least I feel as though we did learn something," he said.
Researchers will continue to follow the men in the study to see whether their cancer risk decreases over time.
The clinical trial also shows no benefits from taking vitamin E or selenium when it comes to lung, colorectal cancer or cardiovascular disease.
