According to a data realized of an international Phase III clinical trial the increase of selenium does not offer any  protection against lung cancer – moreover a recurrence or second primary malignancy.

Results from the decade-long research, initiated by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, were accessible today at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2010 Annual Meeting by Daniel D. Karp, M.D., lecturer in the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Some epidemiological and animal researchers have long-suggested a connection between lack of selenium and cancer expansion, said Karp, the study’s major investigator. Their interest and study escalated in the late 1990’s after a skin cancer and selenium research that was published in 1996, found no advantage against the skin cancer, but did suggest an approximate 30 percent reduction of prostate and lung cancers. Their lung cancer research and one more main study for the avoidance of prostate cancer evolved from that finding.

These large, follow-up clinical researches investigating the naturally occurring mineral, though, have since proven inadequate. In 2009, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) halted SELECT, an global study of more than 35,000 men investigating if either selenium or Vitamin E, alone or in combination, could decrease the danger of prostate cancer. Both supplements failed to demonstrate advantage.

According to the American Cancer Society, about 219,440 people were diagnosed with lung cancer in 2009 and 159,390 died from the disease, making it the leading reason of cancer death in both men and women. When caught as early as Stage I, and the tumor is surgically resettable, nevertheless, and can even be cured in about 80 percent of the cases. In this population, a chemoprevention agent would be advantageous, as the danger of recurrence in Stage I patients after surgery accumulates by one to two percent yearly. Karp also mentioned that, for instance, a patient’s risk of rising a new cancer at 10 years is just about 10-20 percent.