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# Vitamin E fights cancer, but not alpha-tocopherol
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/vitamin_e_fights_cancer_0502130547/
- Published: 2013-05-02T21:46:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:21:09.000Z
- Description: A review concludes that delta- and gamma-tocopherols, but not alpha-tocopherol, prevent cancer in laboratory models. The authors' earlier work found a natural gamma-rich tocopherol mixture inhibited chemically induced lung, colon and mammary cancers and xenograft tumor growth.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Vitamins, Nutrition, #vivvo-import

By David Liu, PHD

Thursday May 2, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- Low vitamin E in the blood has been associated with increased cancer risk. But some large scale human trials show that high doses of alpha-tocopherol do not seem to have a protective effect against cancer.

A new study led by Chung S. Yang and Nanjoo Suh and published in Topics in Current Chemistry has confirmed that not all forms of vitamin E prevent cancer. To be specific, delta- and gamma-tocopherols, but not alpha -tocopherol are effective in preventing cancers.

Early studies by the same authors show that a naturally occurring tocopherol mixture which is high in gamma-tocopherol inhibits chemically induced lung, colon and mammary cancers and the growth of xenograft tumors originated from human lung and prostate cancer cells.

The authors say that the natural vitamin E mixture has the anticancer activity because they are able to trap reactive oxygen and nitrogen species and inhibit arachidonic acid metabolism. In preventing mammary cancer development, vitamin E can activate peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ and inhibit estrogen signaling.

Additionally, δ-tocopherol seems more potent than γ-tocopherol in inhibiting the growth of human lung cancer cells in a xenograft tumor and the development of aberrant crypt foci in rats treated with azoxymethane. Alpha-tocopherol does not work in these models. 

Food consumers should make sure that the vitamin E supplement they use is a natural delta- or gamma-tocopherol or a natural mixture of tocopherols. It should not be a mixture of synthetic vitamin E or inactive alpha-tocopherol.