Selenium: As A Diagnostic Marker For Malignant Neoplasm

The deficiency of selenium has been correlated with the accelerated development of prostrate cancer in transgenic mice whereas supplementary selenium has been found to reduce progression of lungs cancer in human. This study aims at exploring any association or otherwise of the blood selenium level in cancer patient with the cancer occurrence and the investigation of the selenium as a biomarker for malignancy. The 368 samples were collected including healthy and cancer patients. Results shows that the concentration levels of selenium in the blood of 16 to 70 years males and females both combined together weighted averages for control group are 0.121± 0.03 μg per ml (n= 170). Besides for lungs and breast cancer patients fall in the range of 0.057 ± 0.017 μg per ml (n= 119) and 0.056± 0.018 μg per ml (n= 198) respectively. In cancer patients the selenium levels were significantly lower than in control with a P> 0.05 and critical value are > 0.009 and > 0.01 for lungs and breast cancer patients respectively. Studies also revealed that there is a sharp decline in the blood selenium level of the cancer patients irrespective of the gender, age, and type of cancer as compared to controls.