Are men with low selenium levels at increased risk of prostate cancer?

Brinkman, Maree; Reulen, Raoul C.; Kellen, Eliane; Buntinx, Frank; Zeegers, Maurice P.

doi:10.1016/j.ejca.2006.02.027

« Previous Next »European Journal of Cancer
Volume 42, Issue 15 , Pages 2463-2471, October 2006

Are men with low selenium levels at increased risk of prostate cancer?

Maree Brinkman
- Department of General Practice, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kapucijnenvoer 33, Blok J, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
- Corresponding author: Tel.: +32 16 332 696; fax: +32 16 337 480.
Raoul C. Reulen
- Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom
Eliane Kellen
- Department of General Practice, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kapucijnenvoer 33, Blok J, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Frank Buntinx
- Department of General Practice, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kapucijnenvoer 33, Blok J, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
- Department of General Practice and Research Institute Caphri, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
Maurice P. Zeegers
- Department of General Practice, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kapucijnenvoer 33, Blok J, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
- Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom

Received 17 February 2006; received in revised form 26 February 2006; accepted 28 February 2006.

Abstract

A meta-analysis was undertaken to quantitatively determine if men with low selenium levels were at increased risk of prostate cancer.

PubMed, EMBASE and current contents were searched to identify relevant studies. The effect size was calculated by pooling the mean difference for serum, plasma and toenail selenium levels (95% confidence intervals) separately and combined using a random effects model. Meta-regression analysis explored possible sources of heterogeneity.

Twenty epidemiologic studies were selected. Mean differences were: –5.55μg/l (–9.82; –1.27; p=0.01), –0.01μg/g (–0.03; 0.006; p=0.19), –0.52μg/l (–4.63; 3.58; p=0.80) for serum, toenail and plasma studies, respectively. Overall, the pooled standardized mean difference between cases and controls was; –0.23 (–0.40; –0.05; p=0.01) indicating a possible inverse association between selenium levels and risk of prostate cancer.

Differences in selenium levels between populations, a possible threshold effect and the relationship between selenium and the different stages of prostate cancer require further investigation.

Keywords: Selenium, Prostatic neoplasms, Epidemiologic studies, Chemoprevention, Antioxidants