The association between baseline vitamin E, selenium, and prostate cancer in the alpha-tocopherol, beta-carotene cancer prevention study

The association between prostate cancer and baseline vitamin E and selenium was evaluated in the trial-based cohort of the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study (n = 29,133). During up to 9 years of follow-up, 317 men developed incident prostate cancer. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards models that adjusted for intervention group, benign prostatic hyperplasia, age, smoking, and urban residence were used to evaluate associations between prostate cancer and exposures of interest. There were no significant associations between baseline serum α-tocopherol, dietary vitamin E, or selenium and prostate cancer overall. The associations between prostate cancer and vitamin E and some of the baseline dietary tocopherols differed significantly by α-tocopherol intervention status, with the suggestion of a protective effect for total vitamin E among those who received the α-tocopherol intervention (relative risk was 1.00, 0.68, 0.80, and 0.52 for increasing quartiles; P = 0.07).