Answer

It is vital for practitioners to both understand and translate technical information to their lay audience. This paper provides a discussion of the key points presented in the article “Vitamin E and the Risk of Prostate Cancer” authored by Klein et al. (2011).

Background and Purpose

                The influencing factor as presented by Klein et al. (2011) is that a high prevalence coupled with increased morbidity risks from the treatment and costs for the treatment and prevention of prostate cancer. The health issue is that of prostate cancer in men.  Klein et al. (2011) argue that the use of selenium and vitamin E can be two agents which can increase the risk for prostate cancer. The purpose of the study is to make a determination as to the long-term effects of the use of selenium and vitamin E on the risk of having prostate cancer in healthy men. Notably, prostate cancer is defined as a type of cancer which affects the reproductive system of men especially the walnut-sized prostate gland which makes semen that carries sperms.

Methods

                Klein et al. (2011) deployed an experimental study in the quest to attain their study objectives. In specific, a randomized control trial (RCT) was used on the comparison of the effects of the use of selenium and vitamin E in the prevention of prostate cancer. In the study design, a sample of 35533 men was placed into 4 groups. While the first group was that of selenium which matched with placebo, the second one entailed vitamin E with placebo. The third group was with both agents and the fourth was on both placebos. Monitoring of participants was done every six months. Selenium was offered at 200 µg/df while vitamin E was provided in 400 IU/d. The primary predictor variable used by Klein et al. (2011) is the amount of selenium and vitamin E consumed. However, the main outcome measure was the incidence of prostate cancer. Other outcome measures include blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

Results

                One of the findings of the study was that; out of the sample used, 521 cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed. 113 of those were in the placebo group while 147 were found in the group of patients taking Vitamin E and 118 in the combination group. Additionally, prostate cancer incidence was found to have a high prevalence in all treatment groups when compared to the placebo group. However, greater statistics of prostate cancer incidence were found ion the Vitamin E group. Although prostate cancer incidence between the vitamin E group and placebo were only established in the third year, there was a slight increase in the differences each year after the three years. For all the groups, Gleason 6 was the most common in all groups. However, the stage of prostate cancer and its stages were similar among the various groups of participants.

Conclusion

Based on the findings one of the primary conclusions is that the use of selenium dietary supplementation a well as vitamin E have an effect of increasing the risk of prostate cancer. In specific, a 17 percent increase in the incidence of prostate cancer demonstrates that the vitamins contain some active biological substances which can cause harm to relatively healthy men.\

References

Klein, E. A., Thompson, I. M., Tangen, C. M., Crowley, J. J., Lucia, M. S., Goodman, P. J., … & Karp, D. D. (2011). Vitamin E and the risk of prostate cancer: the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT). Jama, 306(14), 1549-1556.