A study coordinated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) suggests higher consumption of selenium may reduce the risk of advanced colorectal cancer (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev, 15, 2:315-20, 2006).
Researchers studied the association between serum selenium and advanced colorectal adenoma in 758 cases and 767 sex – and race – matched controls, randomly selected from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial.
Cases had at least one verified advanced adenoma of the distal colon, while controls had a negative sigmoidoscopy.
There was a significant inverse association between serum selenium and advanced colorectal adenoma among recent smokers; there was no relationship between serum selenium and adenoma risk in nonsmokers and former smokers who quit smoking more than 10 years before.
The study concluded selenium may reduce the risk of developing advanced colorectal adenoma, particularly in the high-risk group of recent smokers.