How a daily multivitamin could reduce cancer risk
TAKING a daily multivitamin pill can lower the risk of cancer, according to the first study of its kind.
Regular use for more than a decade cuts men’s chances of developing the disease by 8 per cent, say researchers.
They cannot identify a single vitamin or combination that works, but claim the benefit comes from a broad combination of low dose vitamins.
The US study involved only men so the same effect cannot be assumed for women, but experts believe it is likely to be similar.
Almost 15,000 doctors took part in the survey at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, and Harvard Medical School.
It is significant as the first trial of its kind, said Michael Gaziano, chief of the Boston hospital’s ‘division of ageing’. He said: ‘Despite the fact that more than one-third of Americans take multivitamins, their long- term effects were unknown until now.’
Millions of Britons buy multivitamins in the hope that they might prevent illness. However, there is little evidence for such benefits and some studies on high- dose vitamins have shown harm.
The latest trial included 14,641 male physicians, initially aged 50 years or older, including 1,312 men with a history of cancer at the start of the study in 1997, with treatment and follow-up through to 2011. Participants received a daily multivitamin or dummy pill and were followed for an average of 11.2 years.
During treatment there were 2,669 confirmed cases of cancer, including 1,373 cases of prostate and 210 of colorectal cancer, with some men experiencing more than one disease. A total of 2,757 (18.8 per cent) men died, including 859 (5.9 per cent) due to cancer.
Analysis of the data found men taking a multivitamin had a modest 8 per cent reduction in total cancer incidence, including colorectal, lung and bladder. There was no statistically significant effect on deaths from cancer.
The daily pill was a brand called Centrum Silver for the over 50s containing vitamins A,C,D,E, B6 and B12, calcium, selenium and zinc.
The study was published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association to coincide with its presentation at the Annual American Association for Cancer Research’s Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research meeting.
Dr Gaziano said many take multivitamins daily because it might ward off cancer, despite the paucity of evidence.
He said there was speculation about the role of individual vitamins and minerals in cancer prevention, but it was difficult to identify any single mechanism through which components of their tested multivitamin may have reduced cancer risk.
‘Although the main reason to take multivitamins is to prevent nutritional deficiency, these data provide support for the potential use of multivitamin supplements in the prevention of cancer in middle-aged