Source: Urology Times

Selenium and vitamin E supplements, taken either alone or together, do not appear to prevent prostate cancer, according to an initial, independent review of study data from the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT).

The data also showed two concerning trends: a small but not statistically significant increase in the number of prostate cancer cases among the more than 35,000 men age 50 years and older in the trial taking only vitamin E; and a small, but not statistically significant increase in the number of cases of adult-onset diabetes in men taking only selenium.

Because this is an early analysis of the data from the study, neither of these findings proves an increased risk from the supplements, and both may be due to chance, according to the authors.

This was a well recruited study that started many years ago when I was at Indiana. We were one of the sites that were recruiting patients. This is the first analysis I have seen from this, so we will need to wait for more data to come out. According to early findings, neither Vitamin E nor selenium help prevent prostate cancer.