New research indicates that a dietary supplement of selenium can prevent breast cancer in women who are genetically predisposed to the disease. Researchers believe that the is a possibility of finding out who is in the high risk group before the disease emerges, and helping prevent the disease by treating these people with supplements of selenium.
We have long had documentation regarding that selenium has good effect in reducing the progression and death rate from cancer. The theory has been that selenium, especially selenomethionine, affects protein called P53 and thereby causes the cancer to not be so aggressive. But new research suggests that selenium also is important for the cancer predisposed and can be a huge leap forward in the effort to prevent cancer.
A study from the University of Illinois in Chicago has focused on the effects of a selenium containing protein (glutathione peroxidise) which functions as an antioxidant. The gene which contains the “code” for the protein was examined to see if differences could be found in breast cancer.
The results suggest that dietary research could be closely related to our knowledge about genes because changes in a specific gene could possible be used diagnose disease earlier than otherwise.
The researchers compared certain genes from 517 healthy people with tissue samples from 79 breast cancer patients and were able to show that there was a significant difference in the amount of the gene in the two groups.
As of yet, no conclusive evidence has been found for the theory that selenium can prevent cancer, but many studies have indicated that this is the case. In the last twenty years animal studies have shown that small supplements of selenium can prevent cancer in many organ systems.
Researchers believe that certain proteins in breast cells contain selenium, and that these cells can advance a preventative effect. By examining the genes which code for these proteins maybe one can find out who can create the protein themselves and who needs selenium supplements.
Reference: Cancer Research, June 15, 2003
