Was not found to increase risk of developing prostate cancer

May 16, 2007 – New research says men taking multivitamins more than seven times a week may double their risk of advanced and fatal prostate cancer over those not taking multivitamins. But, it found no association between multivitamin use and the development of localized prostate cancer.

The increased risk was strongest in men with a family history of prostate cancer and men who also took selenium, beta-carotene, or zinc supplements, according to the report published yesterday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, which is not associated with the U.S. government’s National Cancer Institute.

The possibility that men taking high levels of multivitamins along with other supplements have increased risk of advanced and fatal prostate cancers is of concern and merits further evaluation.

Millions of Americans take multivitamins because of a belief in their potential health benefits, even though there is limited scientific evidence that they prevent chronic disease. Researchers have wondered what impact multivitamin use might have on cancer risk.

Karla Lawson, Ph.D., of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., and colleagues followed 295,344 men enrolled in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study to determine the association between multivitamin use and prostate cancer risk.

After five years of follow-up, 10,241 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, including 8,765 with localized cancers and 1,476 with advanced cancers.


"Because multivitamin supplements consist of a combination of several vitamins and men using high levels of multivitamins were also more likely to take a variety of individual supplements, we were unable to identify or quantify individual components responsible for the associations that we observed," the authors write.

In an accompanying editorial, Goran Bjelakovic, M.D., of the University of Nis in Serbia, and Christian Gluud, M.D., of Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark, discuss the positive and negative health effects of antioxidant supplements.

"Lawson [and colleagues] add to the growing evidence that questions the beneficial value of antioxidant vitamin pills in generally well-nourished populations and underscore the possibility that antioxidant supplements could have unintended consequences for our health," the authors write.

Victoria Stevens of the American Cancer Society told USA Today that this report confirms her 2005 study on vitamins and prostate cancer. A February study in The Journal of the American Medical Association found vitamins A and E and beta carotene pills have no health benefits and may increase the risk of death. "There certainly is no evidence in healthy, relatively well-nourished people that vitamins or antioxidants protect against chronic diseases," Stevens said.

Note: The Journal of the National Cancer Institute is published by Oxford University Press and is not affiliated with the U.S. National Cancer