SelGuard™ Clinical Study Abstract

[PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR CANCER RESEARCH 40, March 1999]

CopyrightÓ1999 by the American Association for Cancer Research

#2391 Anti-neoplastic properties of selenium in various cancers.  Vadgama, J.V., Wu, Y., Hsia, S., and Block, J.  Departments of Medicine, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science, and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90059.

We investigated the anti-neoplastic properties of the Selenium (VIVA, Westar, CA) on the following tumor cells in vitro: Breast (MCF-7, MCF-10, SKBR-3), Lung (RH2), Prostate (LNCap and PC-3), Colon (T84, Caco-2), Small Intestine (HCF8), and Liver (HepG2).  In addition, we examined additive or synergistic effect of Selenium in combination with standard anticancer drugs, andriamycin and taxol.  The effect of Selenium was assessed with the following measurements: apoptosis; DNA synthesis; growth rate by MTT assay; uptake of amino acid MeAIB by System A; and morphological changes by the tunnel assay.  Selenium caused increase in apoptosis as measured by DNA fragmentation and increase in “rounded” cells and membrane “blebbing,” decrease in MeAIB uptake, and decrease in DNA synthesis in breast cancer cells MCF-7 and SKBR-3.  These changes were Selenium dose dependent with optimal inhibition at Selenium concentration between 4 and 40 ng/ml after 72 hrs of treatment.  Similar observations were made with lung (RH2), small intestine (HCF8), colon (Caco-2), and liver (HepG2) cells.  In contrast, prostate cancer cells LNCap and PC-3, and the colon cancer cells T-84 were not significantly affected by Selenium.  However, addition of adriamycin or taxol in combination with Selenium inhibited growth of prostate cancer cells.  Addition of the chemotherapeutic agents taxol or andriamycin with Selenium caused further inhibition of MCF-7, SKBR-3, RH2, HCF8, and HepG2 cells.  In conclusion, Selenium has a significant in vitro anti-neoplastic effect on breast, lung, liver, and small intestinal tumor cells.  Supplementation of Selenium potentiated chemotherapeutic effects of taxol and andriamycin in most of the cancer cell lines studied.