Need Help?

PCPT and SELECT Cohorts: Core Infrastructure Support for Cancer Research

SELECT study: SELECT was a phase III, double-blind, placebo-controlled 4-arm study of selenium, vitamin E, selenium and vitamin E together, and placebo designed to assess the effect of these supplements on the incidence of prostate cancer. Funded by the National Cancer Institute and conducted by SWOG, the study opened in August 2001 and quickly exceeded its accrual goal of 35,533 men.

In the fall of 2008, the trial's Data Safety and Monitoring Committee recommended that participants discontinue taking study supplements due to convincing evidence (planned interim futility analysis) that neither vitamin E nor selenium supplements were associated with the prevention of prostate cancer. A subsequent analysis in 2011 showed a significant 17% increase in prostate cancer incidence in participants who were on the vitamin E only arm. Approximately 17,000 participants from the original trial recently completed an additional four years of centralized follow-up. This follow-up ended on May 31, 2014 and SELECT is now closed.

PCPT study: The Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT) was a SWOG Cancer Research Network-coordinated study designed to test whether the drug finasteride (Proscar®) would prevent prostate cancer in men ages 55 and older. This study was closed on June 24, 2003 because the study objective had been reached. The results of the study, which did find a preventive benefit for the drug, were published as "The Influence of Finasteride on the Development of Prostate Cancer," in the New England Journal of Medicine on July 17, 2003.