Vitamins E and C in preventing cancer in men

Of course, the next study could say something different, but the one published in the January 7 issue of JAMA suggests nutritional supplements E and C (8 year study, 14,641 men) do not reduce the risk of prostate or total cancer. The only reassuring thing in the study was they don't do any harm. The multivitamin study hasn't been published yet.

Results: During a mean follow-up of 8.0 years, there were 1008 confirmed incident cases of prostate cancer and 1943 total cancers. Compared with placebo, vitamin E had no effect on the incidence of prostate cancer (active and placebo vitamin E groups, 9.1 and 9.5 events per 1000 person-years; hazard ratio [HR], 0.97; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.85-1.09; P = .58) or total cancer (active and placebo vitamin E groups, 17.8 and 17.3 cases per 1000 person-years; HR, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.95-1.13; P = .41). There was also no significant effect of vitamin C on total cancer (active and placebo vitamin C groups, 17.6 and 17.5 events per 1000 person-years; HR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.92-1.10; P = .86) or prostate cancer (active and placebo vitamin C groups, 9.4 and 9.2 cases per 1000 person-years; HR, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.90-1.15; P = .80). Neither vitamin E nor vitamin C had a significant effect on colorectal, lung, or other site-specific cancers. Adjustment for adherence and exclusion of the first 4 or 6 years of follow-up did not alter the results. Stratification by various cancer risk factors demonstrated no significant modification of the effect of vitamin E on prostate cancer risk or either agent on total cancer risk.

Conclusions: In this large, long-term trial of male physicians, neither vitamin E nor C supplementation reduced the risk of prostate or total cancer. These data provide no support for the use of these supplements for the prevention of cancer in middle-aged and older men.

The only beneficiaries seem to be the companies that produce and market nutritionals. And although there are no published negative affects, think about all those supplements being passed through to the sewage treatment plants--is there anyway to get that stuff out of the water? We get so worried about what the animals are passing through to the ground water, what about us? I looked at a few articles about this, but didn't see anything worth linking to--sort of hard to find the right descriptors or tags.