High blood levels of either alpha-tocopherol or gamma-tocopherol, both forms of vitamin E, appeared to halve the risk of prostate cancer in a new analysis of the ATBC trial, which supports earlier results showing that the vitamin protects against the cancer, writes Dominique Patton. However Professor Jarmo Virtamo, the principal investigator of the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention (ATBC) trial, warned that further research is needed to clarify whether taking supplements can offer the same level of protection. Original findings from the ATBC study, which included nearly 30,000 Finnish men, showed that daily supplements of alpha-tocopherol (50mg) reduced the risk of prostate cancer by 32 per cent.In a new analysis, Professor Virtamo, based at the National Public Health Institute in Helsinki, Finland, and colleagues from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center looked at the impact of circulating vitamin E levels on 100 individuals with prostate cancer and 200 cancer-free controls participating in the trial.Men with the highest levels of alpha-tocopherol in their blood at baseline were 51 per cent less likely to develop prostate cancer than those with the lowest levels, they reported in yesteday’s issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (vol 97, no 5, pp396-399).
