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 Hope
for successfully treating prostate cancer mounts, as findings provide
evidence of a treatment with promising results. High blood levels
of alpha- and gamma-tocopherol--major vitamin E components--appeared
to reduce the risk of prostate cancer by about 50 percent each.
These results are based on a study involving 100 individuals with
prostate cancer and 200 individuals without, participating in the
Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention (ATBC) Study,
which included nearly 30,000 men in all. Not only did the study
indicate that men with the highest levels of alpha-tocopherol in
their blood at baseline were about 50 percent less likely to develop
prostate cancer than those with the lowest level of the vitamin,
but it also showed:
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Men with highest levels of gamma-tocopherol were 43 percent
less likely to develop the cancer, compared with men with the
lowest levels.
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The connection between high tocopherol levels and low cancer
risk was stronger among individuals taking alpha-tocopherol
supplements compared to those not taking them.
These findings support those of the ATBC study, which showed daily
vitamin E supplementation cut prostate cancer risk by 32 percent.
Vitamin E’s Antioxidant Properties
Because oxidative stress has been linked to the development of
prostate cancer, researchers believe it is vitamin E’s antioxidant
properties that may be the reason for the studies’ findings.
Moreover, alpha-tocopherol has other non-antioxidant properties,
such as enhancement of the immune response, which may also play
a role in the benefits observed of vitamin E.
Journal
of the National Cancer Institute March 2, 2005;97(5):396-399
ABC
News March 2, 2005
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