Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial Celebrates First Anniversary

To celebrate the first anniversary of a clinical trial designed to discover an effective means of preventing prostate cancer, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center treated 160 men enrolled in the trial to a pregame dinner and Houston Astros baseball game.

The men sat together while watching the Astros beat the Seattle Mariners. Study coordinator Scott M. Lippman, M.D., chair of M.D. Anderson’s department of clinical cancer prevention, joined participants for the game.

"This event is our way of saying thank you to the men who have volunteered to take two pills daily for seven to 12 years," Lippman said. "Without their commitment, we wouldn’t be able to conduct this long-term clinical trial."

M.D. Anderson is one of more than 400 institutions throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico recruiting volunteers for the SELECT trial (Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial), the largest cancer prevention study ever conducted. To date, more than 150 men have enrolled at M.D. Anderson for the first of a five-year recruitment period.

The purpose of the national study, coordinated by M.D. Anderson’s Lippman, is to determine whether selenium and vitamin E can prevent prostate cancer, the third leading cancer killer in men. Participants take vitamin supplements and/or placebos daily for seven to 12 years, returning to M.D. Anderson every six months for follow-up visits.

"We don’t have all the answers now, but previous research has shown that these two minerals do provide some protection against prostate cancer," said Elise D. Cook, M.D., principal investigator of M.D. Anderson SELECT and assistant professor of clinical cancer prevention.

Despite progress in the early detection and treatment of the disease, American Cancer Society figures estimate that about 198,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, and about 30,200 men are expected to die from the disease. African-American men are more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer and are twice as likely to die from the disease than men of any other racial or ethnic backgrounds.

"Given the alarming statistics associated with prostate cancer, SELECT places a strong emphasis on recruiting African-Americans to participate, with a national recruitment goal of 6,500 black men," Cook said. "Locally, M.D. Anderson hopes to recruit 2,000 men total, including 400 African-Americans."

Prospective SELECT participants must be healthy males who are at least 55 years old – 50 if African-American – and never diagnosed with prostate cancer. In addition to the biannual follow-up visits, it is recommended that study volunteers have annual digital rectal exams and prostate-specific antigen tests.

For more information about the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial, visit http://www.mdanderson.org/select or call (713) 794-4400.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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