| Age-corrected mortalities from cancer at 17 major body sites were
correlated with the apparent dietary selenium intakes estimated from
food-consumption data in 27 countries. Significant inverse
correlations were observed for cancers of large intestine, rectum,
prostate, breast, ovary, lung and with leukemia; weak inverse
associations were found for cancers of pancreas, skin and bladder.
Similar inverse corelations were found between cancer mortalities at
the above sites and the selenium concentrations in whole blood
collected from healthy human donors in the U.S. and different
countries. The results support the hypothesis that selenium has
cancer-protecting effects in man. Other studies are cited which
demonstrate that selenium prevents or retards tumor development in
animals. A change of diet aimed at increasing the dietary selenium
supply is suggested as a possible means of lowering the human cancer
risk. It is postulated that the cancer mortalities in the U.S. and
other Western industrialized nations would decline significantly if
the dietary selenium intakes were increased to approximately twice
the current average amount supplied by the U.S. diet.
|