Cancer foundation seeking men for study

The National Cancer Institute just launched a 12-year, 400-site research trial intended to show how certain supplements can protect against prostate cancer, and the Southern Nevada Cancer Research Foundation is looking for a few good men to help out.

Actually, the foundation is looking for quite a few good men.

Healthy men age 55 and older are being asked to volunteer for SELECT, the largest prostate cancer prevention study ever conducted. Nationally, the study will include 32,400 men, and foundation officials are hoping for a large local turnout.

"We're hoping for as good a representation as possible," said Dianne Nangano, cancer prevention program coordinator. "There are over 400 locations including places in Canada and Puerto Rico, and environments are different from location to location. The only way to get an across-the-board study is to get all different backgrounds from all different environments."

The study is called SELECT as an abbreviation for the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial. Both naturally occurring nutrients and antioxidants, selenium and vitamin E were chosen because of the results of two other large prevention trials. In a study intended for nonmelanoma skin cancer in 1996, selenium was found to decrease the incidence of prostate cancer in men by more than 60 percent. And in a 1998 lung cancer study, vitamin E was not found to prevent lung cancer but 32 percent less men had prostate cancer.

"This study is not a crackpot idea or a shot in the dark," said Dr. John A Ellerton, an oncologist and hematologist with Cancer Consultants. "There is a lot of good information behind it. Since there hasn't been a study like this before, and because it's so important, it makes sense that we are having men just line up to participate."

During this year, prostate cancer will be diagnosed in about 198,100 Americans and more than 31,500 men are expected to die from it. In Nevada, 1,300 men will be diagnosed and 200 men are expected to die from prostate cancer.

Since African American men have the highest incidence of prostate cancer, they will be eligible to participate at age 50 rather than 55. Besides age and ethnicity, other high risk factors for the disease include having a father or brother with prostate cancer.

Paul Lopez, a Las Vegas local who has participated in other prevention studies, said he was more than eager to enlist in SELECT.

"I have had three family members diagnosed with prostate cancer and one has died from it," Lopez said. "When I found about the other (study), I immediately came in and looked into it . After talking to a lot of people and getting the whole picture, relating to races and other issues, I thought it would be a good idea."

Lopez and other volunteers will be assigned by chance to one of four groups, which will each take a different daily vitamin supplement. One group will take selenium plus an inactive placebo, another will take vitamin E and a placebo, another will take selenium and vitamin E and the final group will be given two placebos. The double-blind study is structured to allow successful research without introducing biases.

Volunteers will also receive free vitamins as long as they are involved in the study.

"Seventy-five percent of the men will be getting the active ingredient, so although you do get natural vitamin E and selenium, we'll look at these supplements and see if they make the difference," Nangano said.

Lew Musgrove, regional director of Us Too!, a prostate cancer survivor support groups with chapters all over the country, is encouraging members of his group and the community to step up for SELECT.

For more information or to get involved with SELECT, contact the Southern Nevada Cancer Research Foundation at 598-0103 or the National Cancer Institute at (800) 422-6237.