Does Vitamin E Prevent or Promote Cancer?

• Published in: Cancer prevention research (Philadelphia, Pa.) Vol. 5; no. 5; pp. 701 - 705
• Main Authors: Yang, Chung S., Suh, Nanjoo, Kong, Ah-Ng Tony
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.05.2012
• Subjects: Animals; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols - therapeutic use; Avitaminosis - complications; Avitaminosis - epidemiology; Chemoprevention - methods; Clinical Trials as Topic - methods; Disease Models, Animal; Humans; Models, Biological; Neoplasms - epidemiology; Neoplasms - etiology; Neoplasms - prevention & control; Tocopherols - administration & dosage; Tocopherols - therapeutic use; Vitamin E - adverse effects; Vitamin E - pharmacology; Vitamin E - physiology; Vitamin E - therapeutic use
• ISSN: 1940-6207; 1940-6215; 1940-6215
• DOI: 10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-12-0045

The cancer preventive activity of vitamin E has been suggested by many epidemiologic studies. However, several recent large-scale human trials with α-tocopherol, the most commonly recognized and used form of vitamin E, failed to show a cancer preventive effect. The recently finished follow-up of the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT) even showed higher prostate cancer incidence in subjects who took α-tocopherol supplementation. The scientific community and the general public are faced with a question: “Does vitamin E prevent or promote cancer?” Our recent results in animal models have shown the cancer preventive activity of γ- and δ-tocopherols as well as a naturally occurring mixture of tocopherols, and the lack of cancer preventive activity by α-tocopherol. On the basis of these results as well as information from the literature, we suggest that vitamin E, as ingested in the diet or in supplements that are rich in γ- and δ-tocopherols, is cancer preventive; whereas supplementation with high doses of α-tocopherol is not. Cancer Prev Res; 5(5); 701–5. ©2012 AACR.