Alternative Health Blog

In a randomized, controlled, multicenter phase III study involving 11 patients with cervical cancer and 70 patients with uterine cancer after surgical treatment being treated with radiotherapy (RT), results indicate that adjuvant selenium supplementation may improve blood selenium status in selenium-deficient patients and reduce the incidence and severity of radiotherapy-induced diarrhea. Patients with initial selenium concentrations of less than 84 mug/L were randomized before RT either to receive 500 mug of selenium by mouth on the days of RT and 300 mug of selenium on the days without RT (n=39) or to receive no supplement during RT (n=42). Selenium levels were found to be significantly higher in the selenium-supplemented group, compared to baseline. Additionally, incidence of diarrhea (2 or higher according to Common Toxicity Criteria) was 20.5% in the selenium group compared with 44.5% in the control group. Thus, the authors of this study conclude, "Selenium supp lementation during RT is effective in improving blood selenium status in selenium-deficient cervical and uterine cancer patients and reduces the number of episodes and severity of RT-induced diarrhea."   Reference: "Multicenter, Phase 3 Trial Comparing Selenium Supplementation With Observation in Gynecologic Radiation Oncology," Muecke R, Micke O, et al, Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys, 2010 Feb 2; [Epub ahead of print]. (Address: Department of Radiotherapy, Lippe Hospital, Lemgo, Germany).