Vitamin E supplements increase risk of prostate cancer

New results from a study of more than 35,000 men reveal that taking vitamin E supplements increases the risk of prostate cancer among healthy men by 17 percent.

The results were published online Oct. 11 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Ian M. Thompson Jr., M.D., director of the Cancer Therapy & Research Center (CTRC) at the UT Health Science Center, is one of the study’s authors.

“The impact of this study is profound,” Dr. Thompson, said. “Over 200,000 men per year are diagnosed with prostate cancer. The fact that vitamin E increases this risk by almost 20 percent means there is a potential for a substantial reduction in the number of men diagnosed with prostate cancer – simply by a change in supplements.”