Vitamin E Aids in Cancer Fight, Researchers Say

A diet rich in vitamin E foods such as nuts and whole grains can lower the risk of lung cancer among smokers by about 20%, a new study says.

In the study of more than 29,000 male smokers in Finland, researchers found that those who had high blood levels of alpha-tocopherol, the main form of vitamin E, reduced their incidence of lung cancer by 19% to 23%.

The benefits were most dramatic, the study found, among men younger than 60 and among light smokers who had been using cigarettes for less than 40 years. The reduction in lung cancer risk in these groups was from 40% to 50%.

Despite the encouraging finding, said Dr. Demetrius Albanes of the National Cancer Institute, the most beneficial health action smokers can take is still the same: Stop smoking.

“We have to emphasize that, not only for lung cancer but for oral cancer, pancreas cancer, kidney cancer and a bunch of other cancers, stopping smoking is crucial,” said Albanes, the senior author of the study being published today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

In the study, which lasted for almost eight years, researchers took periodic blood samples to measure the levels of alpha-tocopherol, the most active form of vitamin E in humans. The levels of alpha-tocopherol were then linked to health outcomes among the men in the study. There were 1,144 cases of lung cancer diagnosed in the group during the study.

The lung cancer rate was reduced among men with the highest levels of alpha-tocopherol, said Albanes, and the cancer protection was most pronounced among men with the shortest history of smoking who also had high vitamin E levels.

Although the study involved only smokers and lung cancer, earlier studies have shown that healthy levels of vitamin E give some protection against heart disease, stroke and some other types of cancer, such as prostate cancer.