Aleksander Galas

Background: Despite advances in prevention and treatment, colorectal cancer remains the second most common cause of cancer death. To date, little is known about the role of prediagnostic selenium intake in colorectal cancer survival. Objective: The purpose of the study was to verify whether selenium intake in habitual diet before diagnosis is associated with survival in colorectal cancer patients. Study design: This was a prospective observation of patients primarily recruited for a case-control study between 2000 and 2012 in Cracow, Poland. A group of 671 incident cases of colorectal cancer was included. Habitual diet was assessed using a validated 148-item food questionnaire. 338 deaths were identified throughout 2017 by the Polish National Vital Registry. To evaluate the impact of dietary selenium on survival, the multivariable Cox regression model was used. Results: After standardization for several potential confounders (including key determinants, such as radical surgery, chemotherapy, tumor stage, and dietary factors), a decrease in the risk of death from colorectal cancer was observed in the group with higher dietary selenium intake (≥48.8 μg/day, group mean: 63.9 μg/day) compared to the group with lower dietary selenium intake (<48.8 μg/day, mean: 38.5 μg/day) (HR=0.73; 95% CI: 0.54–0.98) (the median was used for categorization). Conclusion: Our study suggests selenium as an additional dietary factor which may be associated with survival among colorectal cancer patients referred to surgery. Due to the observational nature of the study, the results should be taken with caution. These preliminary findings, however, provide the basis for well-structured clinical trials.