Higher plasma selenium levels are associated with a decreased risk of advanced prostate cancer, according to a new study. This may indicate that higher selenium levels could slow prostate cancer tumor progression.

Haojie Li, M.D., Ph.D., of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and colleagues analyzed plasma samples, obtained in 1982, from a subset of healthy men enrolled in the Physicians' Health Study, some of whom were diagnosed with prostate cancer during the subsequent 13 years. The researchers found that higher plasma selenium levels were associated with a decreased risk of subsequent advanced prostate cancer. Among men who had increased prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels in 1982, the researchers also found an association between higher selenium levels and a reduced risk of all prostate cancer.

In an editorial, Scott M. Lippman, M.D., of The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and colleagues give an overview of research on selenium's effects on prostate cancer. This new study, they write, continues "to support the initial impression of this agent's tremendous potential as a prostate cancer preventative agent."

Contact: Amy Dayton, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 617-534-1603, adayton2@partners.org

Researchers Identify Possible New Target for Inhibiting Tumor Angiogenesis

Inactivating the mRNA for c-Jun, a transcription factor, inhibits angiogenesis--the development of new blood vessels--and tumor growth in rodent models, according to a new study.

Levon M. Khachigian, Ph.D., of The University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and colleagues suppressed expression of c-Jun in microvascular endothelial cells (the cells that line blood vessels) by transfecting them with a DNA enzyme (DNAzyme) targeting c-Jun mRNA, and studied the properties of the
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Contact: Sarah Zielinski
jncimedia@oupjournals.org
301-841-1287
Journal of the National Cancer Institute
4-May-2004