ARS | Publication request: VITAMIN E AND PROSTATE CANCER

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: January 1, 2006
Publication Date: March 2, 2006
Citation: Burri, B.J. Vitamin e and prostate cancer. 2006. IN Braunstein, M. Ed., Recent Research in Vitamin E Nova Sci. Pub., Haupergne NY. Chapter 1:1-12.

Technical Abstract: Vitamin E, its metabolites or its analogs, might help prevent prostate cancer initiation or progression. The incidence of prostate cancer is rising, partly because of longer life spans. Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin malignancy and the second leading cause of cancer deaths among men in the United States, exceeded only by lung cancer. About 192,000 new cases of prostate cancer will diagnosed in the U.S. in the year 2005, and about 30,000 men will die of this disease. Recently, interest in the role of vitamin E as a prostate cancer preventative has increased because of the unplanned results of two large cancer prevention trials: the Alpha-Tocopherol Beta-Carotene trial to prevent lung cancer in Finnish smokers, and the Nutritional Prevention of Cancer trial of selenium and vitamin E against non-melanoma skin cancer in the United States. Both trials resulted in significantly decreased prostate cancer. Laboratory tests and animal models suggest that vitamin E may act to prevent prostate cancer initiation or inhibit its progression through several mechanisms: by protecting against oxidative damage, decreasing DNA adduct formation, interfering with the function of the androgen receptor, inhibiting cyclooxygenase-2, inhibiting angiogenesis, or by stimulating T-cell dependent immune functions. These findings led to the testing of vitamin E and selenium specifically to prevent prostate cancer in the SELECT trial to prevent prostate cancer in 32,000 U.S. men, which will be completed in 2013; however, the potential of vitamin E to prevent prostate cancer remains controversial.