WASHINGTON – Neither low-dose aspirin nor vitamin E supplements prevent cancer in women, and vitamin E also does little or nothing for women to prevent heart disease, according to results of a large and authoritative study released Tuesday.
The findings from the 40,000-person Women’s Health Study add to the growing evidence that vitamin E pills have no health benefit, but run counter to the rising tide in favor of wider use of aspirin to prevent disease.
The study hinted that the two compounds might offer some protection against disease in some women. It’s also possible a higher dose of aspirin might have had a cancer-preventing effect not seen with the low dose used in the clinical trial. That’s a question still worth exploring, the researchers said.
But for the moment, their advice is against routine use of either substance by healthy women.
“When you look at the total package, I would not recommend that somebody take vitamin E supplements for the purpose of reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease or cancer,” said Julie Buring, an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, who headed the study.
“The best thing for prevention is to follow a healthy lifestyle, eat a healthy diet, exercise, and avoid smoking,” said Nancy Cook, who is also at Brigham and Women’s. “But low-dose aspirin is not effective in reducing cancer incidence. We can lay that to rest.”
None of the 39,876 women in the study had evidence of either cancer or cardiovascular disease. Half were assigned to take 100 milligrams of aspirin every other day, or a placebo.
Half were also assigned to take 600 international units of vitamin E every other day, or a placebo. Neither they nor the scientists found out what they were taking – two active substances, or one or two placebos for the 10-year life of the study.
There were 1,438 cases of cancer in women taking aspirin and 1,427 in those taking placebo – no significant difference. There was no effect on breast cancer incidence or death. There were slightly fewer deaths from lung cancer in women taking aspirin, a result that may have been due to chance.
In the women taking vitamin E there were 308 cancer deaths and in those taking placebo there were 275 – not a significant difference given that each group contained nearly 20,000 people.
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