Selenium
BCCT plans to write a summary on selenium. While our summary is in development, you can visit these sites:
- About Herbs: Selenium
- CAM-Cancer: Selenium—during cancer treatment
Before using this therapy, consult your oncology team about interactions with other treatments and therapies. Also make sure this therapy is safe for use with any other medical conditions you may have.
Clinical Practice Guidelines
The Society for Integrative Oncology’s 2009 clinical practice guidelines found insufficient evidence to recommend selenium for improving side effects of chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery, quality of life or lymphedema.1
Access
The Moss Reports list the availability, names and costs of some selenium supplements. Moss Reports (purchase required).
Cautions
Both About Herbs and CAM-Cancer list adverse reactions, herb-drug interactions and contraindications for selenium. Read the summaries for more information. About Herbs: Selenium and CAM-Cancer: Selenium—during cancer treatment.
Selenium toxicity, more so from supplements than from dietary sources, can be serious, so careful attention is needed about doses and the length of time you take selenium. Doses are in micrograms (μg), not milligrams (mg). A microgram is 1/1000 of a milligram.
Supplementation is associated with an Increased risk of cancer for those with higher serum levels before supplementation.2 According to CAM-Cancer, selenium supplementation may increase the risk of nonmelanoma skin cancer recurrence, especially in fair-skinned people.
Dosing
BCCT does not recommend therapies or doses, but only provides information for patients and providers to consider as part of a complete treatment plan. Patients should discuss therapies with their physicians, as contraindications, interactions and side effects must be evaluated.
Dosage recommendations are available from these sources:
- Solutions 4 Health: Thyroid Cancer Wellness Plan
- Alschuler LN, Gazella KA. The Definitive Guide to Cancer, 3rd Edition: An Integrative Approach to Prevention, Treatment, and Healing. Berkeley, California: Celestial Arts. 2010.
- Block KI. Life over Cancer: The Block Center Program for Integrative Cancer Treatment. New York: Bantam Dell. 2009.
- Chang R. Beyond the Magic Bullet: The Anti-Cancer Cocktail. New York: Square One Publishers. 2012.
- McKinney N. Naturopathic Oncology, 3rd Edition. Victoria, BC, Canada: Liaison Press. 2016.
- TRC Natural Medicines: Selenium (subscription required)
- Moss Reports (purchase required): Select from the list of cancers down the left side of the page for a report describing uses of conventional, complementary, alternative and integrative therapies related to that cancer. Ralph Moss is among the most knowledgeable and balanced researchers of integrative cancer therapies. The cost of his Moss Reports is not negligible, but many patients find them of considerable value. Moss is also available for consultations.
Integrative Programs, Protocols and Medical Systems
| For more information about programs and protocols, see our Integrative Programs and Protocols page. |
- Programs and protocols
- Alschuler & Gazella complementary approaches3
- Osteosarcoma
- Liver cancer
- Pancreatic cancer
- Anti-inflammatory
- Antioxidant
- Block program4
- Core diet plan
- Antioxidant
- Terrain modifier (when deficient)
- Combination immune support supplement
- Radiation enteritis
- Chang strategies for cancer risk reduction5
- Risk reduction
- Lemole, Mehta & McKee protocols6
- Part of the whole-foods diet
- Thyroid cancer
- MacDonald breast cancer program7
- McKinney protocols8
- Natural protectant for radiation therapy injury
- Leukopenia (abnormally low number of white cells in the blood)
- Natural targeted agent to activate mitochondria
- Leading remedy for integrative cancer care to repair DNA damage and support thyroid hormone activation
- Esophageal cancer
- Ornish Lifestyle Medicine
More Information
- ClinicalTrials.gov: clinical trials of selenium
- TRC Natural Medicines: Selenium (subscription required): in-depth information, ratings of effectiveness and safety and evaluation of specific selenium products
- Consumer Labs: Product Review (subscription required): Selenium supplements review
- Moss Reports (purchase required): Select from the list of cancers down the left side of the page for a report describing uses of conventional, complementary, alternative and integrative therapies related to that cancer. Ralph Moss is among the most knowledgeable and balanced researchers of integrative cancer therapies. The cost of his Moss Reports is not negligible, but many patients find them of considerable value. Moss is also available for consultations.
- National Institutes of Health Vitamin E: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals (includes information on how vitamin E interacts with selenium)
- Gurdev Parmar and Tina Kaczor: Textbook of Naturopathic Oncology
- Block KI, Block PB, Gyllenhaal C: Integrative Treatment for Colorectal Cancer
- Keith Block and others: A Broad-Spectrum Integrative Design for Cancer Prevention and Therapy
- National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health: PDQ® Cancer Information Summaries
- Raymond Chang, MD: Beyond the Magic Bullet: The Anti-Cancer Cocktail
- Donald I. Abrams, MD, and Andrew T. Weil, MD: Integrative Oncology, 2nd Edition
- Lise Alschuler, ND, FABNO, and Karolyn Gazella: The Definitive Guide to Cancer, 3rd Edition
- Keith I. Block, MD: Life over Cancer: The Block Center Program for Integrative Cancer Treatment
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: About Herbs, Botanicals and Other Products
- CAM-Cancer Collaboration: CAM-Cancer
- Michael Lerner: Choices In Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Approaches to Cancer
- Lone Star Medical Group: Natural Alternative Treatments
- National Cancer Institute: Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine
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