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Vitamins E, C Have No Preventative Effect Against Cancer

Posted on: Monday, 17 November 2008, 11:24 CST

Although some research has suggested that diets that are rich in vitamins E and C may prevent the onset of cancer, U.S. researchers on Sunday reported new findings to indicate that these vitamins had no preventative effect.

The large study consisted of 14,641 male physicians who were at least 50 years old at enrollment. Each of the doctors were given either 400 IU supplements of vitamin E or 500 milligrams of vitamin C, or placebo each day.

Researchers studied the effects of these supplements for up to 10 years while focusing on the development of cancer. Questionnaires were used annually to study participants’ progress.

Neither supplement had a significant protective effect against any type of cancer, said Howard Sesso of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and colleagues.

"After nearly 10 years of supplementation with either vitamin E or vitamin C, we found no evidence supporting the use of either supplement in the prevention of cancer," Sesso said. "While vitamin E and C supplement use did not produce any protective benefits, they also did not cause any harm."

Sesso, who reported his recent findings at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, also reported last week that the same population of men taking these vitamins also failed to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease including heart attack and stroke. These findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"In our view, there's really no compelling reason to take these individual vitamin E and C supplements," he added. "Until other evidence comes out otherwise, we would argue that without any clear benefit, why would you take these?"

J. Michael Gaziano Study, co-author and associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and VA Boston, said: "Individual vitamin supplements such as vitamin E and C do not appear to provide the same potential advantages as vitamins included as part of a healthy, balanced diet."

The researchers were particularly interested in whether vitamin E supplementation would reduce the risk of prostate cancer after earlier research suggested it might. It did not.

Previous laboratory research and observational studies in which people who reported eating a diet rich in vitamins E and C were found to have a lower risk of cancer, had suggested that taking these vitamins as individual supplements may offer some protective benefits.

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On the Net:

• Harvard Medical School
• American Association for Cancer Research
• Journal of the American Medical Association

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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