Toenail selenium levels and the risk of breast cancer

Toenail selenium levels and the risk of breast cancer.van den Brandt PA, Goldbohm RA, van't Veer P, Bode P, Dorant E, Hermus RJ, Sturmans F.Department of Epidemiology, University of Limburg, Maastricht, The Netherlands.The association between toenail selenium and breast cancer was studied in a prospective study on diet and cancer among 62,573 Dutch women aged 55-69 years that started in September 1986. The analysis was based on 355 breast cancer cases, detected during 3.3 years of follow-up (1986-1989), for whom selenium data were available. Selenium levels were significantly lower among cases diagnosed early during follow-up. After exclusion of cases that occurred in the first year of follow-up, multivariable-adjusted rate ratios of breast cancer in increasing quintiles of selenium were 1.00, 0.90, 0.76, 0.86, and 0.91 (trend p = 0.618). The authors found no evidence for an inverse association between selenium status and breast cance