MARYLAND: Overdosing on vitamins can increase the risk of deadly prostate cancer.

MARYLAND: Overdosing on vitamins can increase the risk of deadly prostate cancer.

New research today by American scientists found a surprising link between rates of advanced and fatal prostate cancer and men who regularly took multivitamins.

They investigated the impact of vitamin use on cancer in 295,344 men.

They found those who used the supplements more than once a day were significantly more likely to suffer dangerous advanced forms of the disease than men who took no multivitamins.

The correlation was strongest for men with a family history of the disease, and who also took selenium, beta-carotene or zinc supplements.

No similar association was seen between heavy multivitamin use and localised prostate cancer.

But the scientists could find no explanation for the results, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Dr Karia Lawson from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda said: "We were unable to identify or quantify individual components responsible for the associations that we observed.

"Our findings of a markedly increased prostate cancer risk among men using multivitamin supplements is of concern and warrants further research."

More than 10,200 of the men studied were diagnosed with prostate cancer. Of these, 8765 had localised cancers and 1476 advanced cancers.

During a separate follow-up period of six years, 179 men died from the disease.

Men taking large amounts of multivitamins were 1.32 times more likely to develop advanced prostate cancer and nearly twice as likely to have a fatal condition as those who did not use multivitamins.

l Other figures released today show survival rates from cancer have doubled in the last 30 years, with more than 46% of patients alive 10 years after diagnosis l Survival rates after five years now stand at 49.6%