Oral Selenium Supplementation Has No Effect on Prostate-Specific Antigen Velocity in Men Undergoing Active Surveillance for Localized Prostate Cancer

Study answer

What this study found

Selenium did not slow prostate cancer progression as measured by PSA velocity. Compared with placebo, PSA velocity differences were not significant for 200 μg/day (-0.03, 95% CI -0.09 to 0.03; P = 0.32) or 800 μg/day (-0.02, 95% CI -0.08 to 0.04; P = 0.61). In quartile analyses, the 800 μg/day group showed a higher PSA velocity than placebo in the highest baseline selenium quartile (P = 0.018), while lower quartiles were not significantly different. Time to treatment was also not significantly different by Kaplan-Meier estimates, supporting the conclusion that selenium supplementation did…

Study & population

Randomized, placebo-controlled multicenter trial in men with biopsy-proven localized, nonmetastatic prostate cancer who chose active surveillance rather than immediate treatment.

Intervention

Men on active surveillance received oral selenized yeast at either 200 μg/day or 800 μg/day, taken daily for up to 5 years, compared with placebo.

Key limitation

The active intervention arms were small, with 47 participants randomized per dose, limiting power for subgroup and adverse event analyses.

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Original abstract