Antioxidants not linked to melanoma risk

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Results from the large prospective Vitamins and Lifestyle (VITAL) study contradict an earlier report that antioxidant supplements increase melanoma risk in women.

In the August issue of Archives of Dermatology, Dr. Maryam M. Asgari, from Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Oakland, and colleagues note that in 2007, researchers heading up the Supplementation in Vitamins and Mineral Antioxidants (SUVIMAX) study reported that women randomized to take daily antioxidant supplements had a fourfold higher risk of melanoma.

Dr. Asgari's team calls this finding "alarming" and points out that up to 55% of US adults are regular users of vitamin or mineral supplements.

The VITAL cohort studied by Dr. Asgari and colleagues comprised 69,671 men and women with self-reported multivitamin and supplement intake over a 10-year period.

The researchers examined use of the same 5 antioxidants that had reportedly increased women's melanoma risk in the previous study-vitamin C, vitamin E, beta carotene, selenium, and zinc. They analyzed melanoma incidence using Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results data.

After adjusting for melanoma risk factors, the investigators found no significant associations between multivitamin use and melanoma risk in women or men. Moreover, there was no excess risk - regardless of gender -- in participants who took multivitamins or supplemental beta carotene or selenium at doses comparable to those in the study reported in 2007. Moreover, these doses "were several times greater than those in a standard multivitamin," according to the article.

"None of the multivitamin exposure variables, whether expressed as overall use, duration of use in the past 10 years, dose in pill-years, or years of use since age 21 were associated with melanoma risk," the authors emphasize.

Also, they point out, no relationship between intake of vitamins A, C and E was found in the Nurses Health Study, which involved 162,000 women and more than 1.6 million person-years of follow up.

The investigators conclude that results of the earlier SUVIMAX study "should be interpreted with caution."

Arch Dermatol 2009;145:879-882.

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