Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial

Hunterdon Regional Cancer Center is taking part in the largest-ever prostate cancer prevention study. The Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial(SELECT) seeks to learn if these two dietary supplements can protect against prostate cancer, the most common form of cancer, after skin cancer, in men.

More than 400 sites in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada are recruiting participants for SELECT, which will take up to 12 years to complete. The study will include a total of 32,400 men.

SELECT is the first study designed to look directly at the effects of vitamin E and selenium, both separately and together, in preventing prostate cancer. Previous research involving vitamin E and selenium suggested that these nutrients might prevent prostate cancer, but it is not known for sure. When SELECT is finished researchers will know whether these supplements can prevent prostate cancer.

Risk factors for the disease include being over age 55, being black, or having a father or brother with prostate cancer.

It is crucial that men of all races and ethnic backgrounds participate in SELECT and since African-American men have the highest incidence of prostate cancer in the world, they were especially encouraged to join the trial. The disease also strikes black men at a younger age, so they were eligible to enroll in the study at age 50, vs. age 55 for other racial and ethnic groups.

Selenium and vitamin E, both naturally occurring nutrients, are antioxidants. They are capable of neutralizing toxins known as "free radicals" that might otherwise damage the genetic material of cells and possibly lead to cancer.

Men in the study from Hunterdon County will visit Hunterdon Regional Cancer Center once every six months. They were assigned by chance to one of four groups. One group takes 200 micrograms of selenium daily plus an inactive capsule, or placebo, that looks like vitamin E. Another group takes 400 milligrams of vitamin E daily along with a placebo that looks like selenium. A third group takes both selenium and vitamin E. And a final group is given two placebos.

Call Jackie Allen, CNS, AOCN, Hunterdon Regional Cancer Center Prevention Research Nurse, at (908) 237-2330 to find out more about the SELECT study at Hunterdon Regional Cancer Center.