In Brief: Selenium: Maybe this mineral isn't such a gem after all
In Brief
Selenium: Maybe this mineral isn't such a gem after all
The purpose of the Nutritional Prevention of Cancer trial was to test whether taking the mineral selenium might protect people against the two most common types of skin cancer. Taking the 200-microgram (mcg) pills daily flopped for skin cancer prevention, but when researchers started to poke around in the data looking for other effects, they made a pleasant discovery: Men who had taken the selenium pills seemed to gain some protection against prostate cancer. Compared with the placebo group, the selenium takers were 63% less likely to have developed the cancer.
Researchers can find some intriguing associations in any set of data if they rummage around enough. But results from a variety of other studies have burnished selenium's reputation as a prostate cancer preventative.
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