December 15, 1999JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute
β-Carotene Supplementation and Incidence of Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease: the Women's Health Study
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Discussion
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Implication
Randomized double-blind trial finds no reduction in cancer or cardiovascular disease with beta-carotene in healthy women, indicating lack of preventive benefit.
Key Points
- To determine whether beta-carotene supplementation reduces the incidence of cancer and cardiovascular disease among healthy women.
- Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 39,876 women aged ≥45 years assigned to beta-carotene (50 mg on alternate days; n = 19,939) or placebo (n = 19,937).
- Treatment was terminated early after a median duration of 2.1 years (range = 0.00–2.72 years), with a median total follow-up of 4.1 years.
- Cancer incidence did not differ significantly between the beta-carotene group (378 cases) and the placebo group (369 cases; RR = 1.03; 95% CI = 0.89–1.18).
- Cardiovascular endpoints showed no significant differences for the combined endpoint of myocardial infarction, stroke, or cardiovascular death (116 in beta-carotene vs 102 in placebo), individual events (MI: 42 vs 50; stroke: 61 vs 43; CVD deaths: 14 vs 12), or total mortality (59 vs 55).
- Among baseline smokers (13%), beta-carotene showed no significant effect on cancer incidence (RR = 1.11; 95% CI = 0.78–1.58) or cardiovascular disease (RR = 1.01; 95% CI = 0.62–1.63).
Cite This Study
Lee et al. (1999) studied this question.