Anticancer Vitamins du Jour--The ABCED's So Far

Abstract

It started 30 years ago with vitamin A: the idea that some cancers might be caused by vitamin deficiencies. Animal experimental models led us to the notion that cancer risk might be “materially” reduced by supplementation with beta-carotene, a retinol precursor (1). Although that idea was seductive, we were all disappointed when 2 large randomized controlled trials that began in 1985 in Finland and the United States reported an 18% increased risk of lung cancer caused by high-dose beta-carotene supplementation and a 28% increased lung cancer risk caused by a combination of beta-carotene and retinol (2, 3). The vitamin A era was over.