A randomized study of more than 35,000 men ages 50 and older showed that men who took 400 international units (IU) of vitamin E daily for several years had more prostate cancers compared with men who took a placebo.

The findings from the “Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial” showed that per 1,000 men, there were 76 cases of prostate cancer in men who took only vitamin E supplements versus 65 in men taking a placebo over a seven-year period, according to the study’s abstract. This represents a 17 percent increase in prostate cancers in men who took vitamin E compared with those who took a placebo, a difference that was statistically significant and therefore not likely due to chance, the study’s authors wrote.

The study, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

—Anne Aurand, The Bulletin