Evaluation of Vitamin E and Selenium Levels in Breast Cancer Patients in Port Harcourt Metropolis, Nigeria

Breast cancer has become the most common cancer diagnosed in women and reason for most death arising from cancer, especially in developing countries. In Port Harcourt, Nigeria, there has been a steady increase in the incidence of breast cancer, surpassing cervical cancer. Hence this study is to find the link between micronutrients and the risk of breast cancer as research studies are looking towards possible ways the human body resistance could be adequately improved or enhanced to help the body overcome the onslaught of most cancer-causing agent humans are exposed to. Serum and urine selenium levels and serum vitamin E levels in 100 breast cancer patients and 50 normal healthy individuals were investigated using the ELISA method. Graphpad prism (version 7) was used for statistical analysis. The respective mean values for serum and urine selenium (μg/l) and serum vitamin E (μg/ml) were reduced in the cancer subjects 0.89 ± 1.0; 0.19 ±0.03 and 11.44 ± 6.1 when compared with control subjects with values of 4.92 ± 3.2; 4.46 ± 3.9 and 17.68 ± 16.0 for serum and urine selenium and serum vitamin E samples respectively. The significantly (p<0.05) lowered values in the cancer patients could be indicating that reduced levels of selenium and /or vitamin E are the possible risk of breast cancer.