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The epidemiological relationship between selenium level and age-adjusted human cancer mortality (incidence) was studied in 24 regions located in eight provinces of China. Statistically significant inverse correlation was found between age-adjusted total cancer death rates and selenium levels in whole blood from local residents. In the areas with high selenium levels, there was significantly lower mortality in both males and females from cancer of the stomach and esophagus. In addition, an inverse correlation between regional distribution of liver cancer incidence and selenium contents in blood and grains in Qidong county, an area with high risk of hepatoma, was observed. With the intention of providing selenium supplements to residents living in low selenium regions, the selenium content in grains was raised by means of foliar spraying of crops with Na2SeO3 solution.
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Evidence supporting the hypothesis that decreased Se status is associated with an increased risk of cancer is increasing. This paper reviews the epidemiological studies of the Se and cancer hypothesis and discusses their strengths, limitations, problems of interpretation, and methodological issues.
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Although experimental studies in animals show that selenium may prevent cancer, case-control studies of internal human cancers have been difficult to interpret because neoplastic tissue sequesters selenium. We therefore conducted a case-control study to examine the association between plasma selenium level and skin cancer, a neoplasm with minimal tumor mass at the time of diagnosis. The mean selenium level among patients with either basal cell epithelioma (N = 142), squamous cell carcinoma (N = 48), or both (N = 50), was 0.141 micrograms/g. This was significantly lower than the mean plasma selenium level of the 103 control subjects, which was 0.155 micrograms/g. The noncancer control groups were drawn from current clinic patients and past clinic patients. The logistic estimate of the odds ratio for the lowest versus the highest decile of selenium for all cases combined versus the group of current patient controls was 4.39; for all cases combined versus the past patient controls, the logistic estimate of the odds ratio was 5.81.
Nonmelanoma skin cancer and plasma 0022-3166 selenium: a prospective cohort study
  • L C Turnbull
  • B W Graham
  • G F Hulka
  • B S Bray
  • I Shy
  • C M Combs
  • G F Jr
  • O Levander
CLARK, L. C., TURNBULL, B. W., GRAHAM, G. F., HULKA, B. S., BRAY, I. & SHY,C. M. (1987| Nonmelanoma skin cancer and plasma 0022-3166/88 $3.00 ©1988 American Institute of Nutrition. Received 15 August 1987. /. Nutr. 118: 238-239, 1988. selenium: a prospective cohort study. In: Selenium in Biology and Medicine, part B (Combs, G. F., Jr., Levander, O. A., Spallholz, }. E., & Oldfield, J. E., eds.), pp. 1122-1134, AVI Books, New York.