New Study: Genes, Vitamin E & A Lower Prostate Cancer Risk
A study published electronically ahead of print in the Journal of Nutrition, on March 12, 2014 shows that men who use vitamin E more efficiently because of a gene variant have a much lower risk of developing prostate cancer.
The rare genetic variant indicates a higher vitamin E status. “Genetic variants in genes involved in vitamin E transport or metabolism may be important determinants of potential beneficial effects of vitamin E supplementation on prostate cancer risk,” Jacqueline M. Major and her associates at the National Cancer Institute note in their introduction to the report. When you’re first diagnosed with prostate cancer, it can be a scary time where you focus only on the negatives, but after a while, once the news has sunk in you will have lots of questions that you want to be answered. You might want to know why you have had the misfortune of developing cancer, asking ‘is prostate cancer hereditary‘, and ‘is there anything I could have done to avoid it’. Next, you will start wanting to know what’s out there that can help you to get better, and finally, you’ll want to be able to help others avoid a similar diagnosis. This is where we come in.
The Study on Men with Prostate Cancer
The study included participants in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial, which enrolled over 155,000 men and women between 1993 and 2001. The current investigation compared 483 men diagnosed with prostate cancer and 542 subjects without who had genotype data on three vitamin E-related variants available.
Results
The researchers found that the presence a specific single nucleotide polymorphism; a rare form of a more common gene allowing it to work better, was associated with a 25% lower risk of prostate cancer in comparison with the more common genotype, and that another variant conferred a reduction in risk that approached statistical significance. As potential mechanisms for the vitamin against prostate cancer, the authors emphasize its antioxidant properties that can protect against oxidative damage or inhibit lipid peroxidation within the cells. They also discuss the vitamin’s modifying effect on inflammation.
“To our knowledge, no previous study has examined the association between these genome-wide association study identified vitamin E–associated genetic variants and prostate cancer risk,” Dr Major and her colleagues announce. “These findings support the hypothesis that the variant allele may enhance antioxidant enzyme activity or other functions.
Read the full study in the Journal of Nutrition by clicking here!
