- More than 50,000 people are being recruited
across the world to take part in one of the biggest-ever trials of a food
supplement that could cut cancer deaths by half.
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- The experiment follows a recent trial
in America - involving the mineral selenium - which had spectacular results.
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- British scientists have long been worried
by the decline in our diet of selenium - found in foods such as bread,
Brazil nuts and kidneys. The lack of selenium is already being blamed for
an increase in heart disease and a decline in sperm quality.
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- Now US scientists have shown that selenium
supplements can be an impressive weapon in the fight against cancer. In
a trial involving 1,312 people, there were 50 per cent fewer cancer deaths
in those supplementing their normal diet with 200 micrograms of selenium
a day compared to those who didn't.
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- They also had 37 per cent fewer incidencies
of all forms of cancer. Cases of prostate cancer were 63 per cent fewer,
colon cancers were 58 per cent down and lung cancers 46 per cent fewer.
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- The trial was carried out by Professor
Larry Clark, the world's leading authority on selenium and cancer. The
results were so impressive that he decided to widen the study internationally
and also, use more people.
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- If the same results occur, then the trial
researchers - based in seven different countries - will make public health
recommendations such as adding selenium to fertilisers and fortifying foods
as well as dietary supplements. Concerns have been raised that the amount
of selenium, an essential trace element found in the soil, is falling in
the UK.
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- The average intake in the standard British
diet is now less than a third of that of the average American. It has dropped
from around 60 mcgs a day in the early Seventies to around 34mcgs in the
mid-Nineties, compared to between 90-150mcgs a day in America.
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- A decline in the consumption of bread,
a main source of selenium, and the trend towards using European rather
than North American wheat which has more of the mineral, is to blame for
the fall in the British diet. Selenium is an antioxidant which prevents
cells in the body from damage. It also improves the immune system.
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- A total of 8,750 healthy British men
and women between the ages of 60 and 74 are being signed up for the £20
million study, which involves people from Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland,
Denmark and Belgium, as well as Britain and America.
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- Researchers have applied for funds to
the EU, the US government and an unnamed British cancer charity.
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- The actual selenium taken in the trial
will be the same as in Professor Clark's first experiment - SelenoPrecise,
produced by Pharma Nord.
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- "It is encouraging that selenium
as a means of cancer prevention has not been shown to be toxic," said
Andrew Bennison, of Pharma Nord. "Only in amounts around 1000mcgs
does it produce side-effects such as nausea, vomiting and hair loss."
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- Professor Clark said: "There's every
reason to expect the effect in Europe to be stronger than in America because
of lower intake levels of selenium."
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- Dr Margaret Rayman, who heads the British
part of the study, said: "It is time we took the declining intake
of the trace minerals seriously."
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