title: Serum vitamin E level and risk of female cancers.
abstract: A sample of 15,093 women, aged 15-99 and initially free from cancer, participated in the Finnish Social Insurance Institution's Mobile Clinic Health Survey in 1968-71. A record linkage to the Cancer Registry revealed that during a mean follow-up of eight years cancer was diagnosed in 313 women. Serum alpha-tocopherol levels were measured from stored samples (at -20 C) of the cancer patients and of 578 controls, matched for municipality and age. An inverse relation was observed between alpha-tocopherol level and risk of cancer, even if the cancers in the first two years of follow-up were excluded. Women in the lowest quintile for alpha-tocopherol levels compared to those with higher values had a 1.6-fold (95% confidence interval: 1.1-2.5) risk of cancer as adjusted for possible confounding effects of several other factors. A low level of alpha-tocopherol in general strongly predicted epithelial cancers while it carried an only slightly elevated risk of cancers in reproductive organs exposed to oestrogens. The results suggest that a low vitamin E intake is a risk factor for cancer in many, but not all, organs. The expression of its protective effect may depend on the primary causes, which vary between different cancers.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Social Security, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Knekt
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D005833:Genital Neoplasms, Female / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008498:Medical Record Linkage; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000453:epidemiology; D012042:Registries; D012307:Risk Factors; D012643:Selenium / Q000097:blood; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects; D014810:Vitamin E / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D014810:Vitamin E; D002784:Cholesterol; D012643:Selenium