Serum selenium levels and the risk of progression of laryngeal cancer

• Published in: PloS one 2018-01, Vol.13 (1), p.e0184873-e0184873
• Main Authors: Lubiński, Jan, Marciniak, Wojciech, Muszynska, Magdalena, Jaworowska, Ewa, Sulikowski, Mieczyslaw, Jakubowska, Anna, Kaczmarek, Katarzyna, Sukiennicki, Grzegorz, Falco, Michal, Baszuk, Piotr, Mojsiewicz, Magdalena, Kotsopoulos, Joanne, Sun, Ping, Narod, Steven A, Lubiński, Jan A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Calibration; Cancer; Cancer therapies; Chemotherapy; Death; Diagnosis; Evaluation; Health risks; Laryngeal cancer; Medical diagnosis; Medical prognosis; Medicine and Health Sciences; Melanoma; Mortality; Otolaryngology; Pathology; People and places; Physical Sciences; Population; Public health; Radiation therapy; Reference materials; Selenium; Skin cancer; Studies; Supplements; Survival; Toenail; Vital statistics
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0184873

Observational studies have reported an inverse relationship between selenium status (blood or toenail) and the risk of laryngeal cancer; however, the impact of low serum selenium level on survival has not been evaluated. We conducted a prospective study of 296 patients diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in Szczecin, Poland. Serum selenium was measured at diagnosis and prior to treatment. Patients were followed from the date of diagnosis to death at five years. Vital status was obtained by linkage to the Polish National Death Registry. The five-year survival after diagnosis was 82.0% (95% CI: 68% to 91%) for individuals in the highest quartile of serum selenium (> 66.8 μg/L) and was 28.6% (95% CI 19% to 42%) for individuals in the lowest quartile (