Previous research showed that people with diets rich in vitamins E and C had a lower risk of cancer, suggesting that supplements of these vitamins might help ward off cancer, the researchers said.

The new study tracked cancer risk in 14,641 male U.S. doctors who took either 400 IU of vitamin E every other day or a placebo, or 500 milligrams of vitamin C daily or a placebo. Their average age was 64 at the start of the study and they were followed for eight years on average.

Taking the vitamins had no impact on the risk for any type of cancer, Howard Sesso of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and colleagues reported at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

One week ago, Sesso reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association that in the same population of men, taking these vitamins also failed to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease including heart attack and stroke.

"In our view, there's really no compelling reason to take these individual vitamin E and C supplements," Sesso said in a telephone interview. "Until other evidence comes out otherwise, we would argue that without any clear benefit, why would you take these?"

Vitamin E and vitamin C are antioxidants, thought to protect against damage caused by free radicals, substances that can harm cells, tissues and organs. Fruits and vegetables are rich in both, and it has been shown that people who eat plenty of these foods may have a lower risk of heart disease, cancer and other conditions.

The researchers were particularly interested in whether vitamin E supplementation would reduce the risk of prostate cancer after earlier research suggested it might. It did not.

There has been controversy over vitamin C and cancer for decades. The idea that vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, could be used to treat cancer was advanced in the 1970s by American scientist Linus Pauling, who awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1954.

Sesso said an ongoing element of his research is looking at whether taking a multivitamin combining a number of different vitamins has any effect on the risk for cancer and cardiovascular disease.

The idea that such therapy can extend survival in cancer patients has been controversial for two decades. Past studies have yielded conflicting results.

Researchers led by Ohio State University's Barbara Andersen studied 227 women with breast cancer. About half took part in a year of therapy in groups of 8 to 12 patients led by two clinical psychologists, while the others did not.

After 11 years, the women who participated in the group therapy were 56 percent less likely to die of breast cancer and 45 percent less likely to have their cancer return, the researchers wrote in the journal Cancer.

"Survival is kind of the bottom line when it comes to cancer. So we have people being healthy, productive people for longer -- and that's a huge health outcome," Andersen, who helped lead the therapy groups, said in a telephone interview.

Michael Stefanek, an American Cancer Society behavioral research expert, expressed wariness.

"Psychological interventions have been found in the majority of well-controlled studies to enhance quality of life and reduce distress. It would not be reasonable for patients to participate in psychological interventions with the goal of extending survival," he said in a statement.

BETTER IMMUNE FUNCTION

The women had Stage II or Stage III breast cancer in which the tumor may have spread to the lymph nodes near the breast or chest wall or skin, but not to more distant parts of the body.

Andersen said the group sessions, among other things, aimed to reduce the women's distress, train them how to relax and improve coping skills, improve their diet and exercise habits and discourage smoking and drinking alcohol.

The improved survival may stem from better immune function resulting from stress reduction, the researchers said.

The therapy sessions began after the women had breast cancer surgery but before they started chemotherapy and radiation treatments. They took part in weekly sessions for four months and monthly sessions for another eight months.

Among the 54 women who died during the study period, those who took part in group therapy lived longer than the others. And among the women whose cancer came back, the recurrence happened later in those who had done the therapy sessions.

Lois Friedman, a psychologist at University Hospitals Case Medical Center's Ireland Cancer Center in Cleveland, said too few cancer patients take part in therapy.

Friedman, who was not involved in the study, said there is clear evidence that such psychological interventions can improve mood and quality of life, help with adherence to medical regimens and improve general well-being.

"But I think we need to be cautious before we say it's going to increase survival," Friedman said in a telephone interview.

About 48 percent of adults said they would not get vaccinated this season, citing such reasons as "I don't get sick," and the erroneous belief that the vaccine causes the flu, according to the survey by Consumer Reports Health.

In addition, of all 2,011 survey respondents, two-thirds thought it was better to build up a "natural immunity" to the flu virus than to be vaccinated.

However, "there is no evidence that people who get flu shots have lower natural immunities or that people who don't get flu shots have higher immunities," Dr. John Santa, director of the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center, said in a written statement.

Flu season typically begins in late October and can last until as late as May. Experts recommend that most people over the age of 6 months get a flu shot every year. This is especially important for people at elevated risk of potentially fatal flu complications like pneumonia -- including adults older than 50 and people with chronic health conditions like heart disease, lung disease and kidney disease.

The vaccine contains killed flu viruses, so it is not possible to catch the infection from the vaccine. Some people do, however, develop a mild fever for a day or two after the shot, as the immune system reacts to the vaccine.

In the current survey, only 52 percent of respondents said they planned on being vaccinated this flu season. Some of respondents' most common reasons for shunning the vaccine were that they "don't get sick," (45 percent), they knew someone who'd gotten sick from the vaccine (41 percent) and they believed the vaccine to be ineffective (26 percent).

About one-third worried about the vaccine's side effects, while roughly one-quarter said they either did not like shots or did not like doctors.

"Sounds like a lot of excuses and misconceptions to avoid a quick and inexpensive, if not free, shot," Santa said.

"People need to know that getting a flu vaccination every year is the best way to prevent the flu," he added.

"The vaccine will not make them sick or give them the flu. Without it, they and their families are at higher risk of getting the flu. If they get the flu they may transmit it to vulnerable people for whom the consequences may be serious."

Continuing a vigorous weight-bearing exercise program during pregnancy appears to be a marker of women who spontaneously maintain this practice over time, resulting in a low cardiovascular risk profile when they approach menopause, Dr. James F. Clapp III from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland suggests in a report in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

He conducted a long-term study of a group of women initially studied serially before, during, and for 1 year after pregnancy 18-20 years ago. Prior to becoming pregnant, the women ran, cross-country skied, and/or performed aerobics several times a week.

The analysis included 20 women who continued exercise throughout pregnancy and 19 women who stopped or reduced their exercise volume by at least 75 percent before the 12th week of pregnancy. The women resumed a regular recreational exercise program by 6 months after delivery.

Results showed that the women who had exercised while pregnant were exercising at 82 percent of their pre-pregnancy level, whereas the other women were exercising at about 52 percent.

Compared to women who had decreased exercise during pregnancy, those who maintained exercise while pregnant gained less weight over time and tended to have a higher self-assessed body image.

Those who exercised through pregnancy also had a lower resting heart rate and lower levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol. They also were more competent exercisers as demonstrated by shorter 2-mile run times.

SOURCE: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, November 2008.

The gene in question is known as the ataxia-telangiectasia, or A-T, gene. At least 1 percent of the population carries a mutation in the gene, and women who carry mutated A-T have a higher-than-average risk of developing breast cancer.

But until now it had not been known whether smoking increases this risk even more. Studies on smoking and breast cancer in the population as a whole have generally found little or no evidence that the habit contributes to the disease.

These latest findings, however, should give women yet another reason not to smoke, according to lead researcher Dr. Michael Swift, of the Disease Insight Research Foundation in Ardsley, New York.

While the study focused only on women with an A-T mutation, most women who carry such a mutation do not know it, Swift told Reuters Health.

So it's wise -- for a whole range of health reasons -- for all female smokers to give up the habit.

Most people do not know whether they have an A-T mutation because the defect causes no symptoms when a person carries only one copy of the mutated gene. In the uncommon case where a child inherits two copies of a mutated A-T gene -- one copy from each parent -- it causes ataxia- telangiectasia, a disorder that attacks the nervous system.

So while parents of children with ataxia-telangiectasia know they are carriers, most carriers remain unaware.

For the current study, reported in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, Swift's team used data on 859 women who'd been recruited into a long-term A-T gene study between 1971 and 1999.

All had a family member affected by ataxia-telangiectasia, and blood and tissue tests had confirmed that 539 carried an A-T mutation.

Among the gene carriers who did not smoke, 21 percent developed breast cancer by the age of 80. In contrast, a full 80 percent of carriers who smoked developed the disease.

Of women who did not carry an A-T mutation, 16 percent of non-smokers and 20 percent of smokers developed breast cancer before the age of 80 -- an insignificant difference in statistical terms.

"Women who know they carry an A-T mutation and are still smoking should certainly get off of it," Swift said.

But the same advice, he added, goes for all smokers. As yet, there is no test for A-T mutations available for the general public.

It's not clear why the combination of smoking and a mutated A-T gene carries such a high long-term risk of breast cancer. Smoking damages the DNA within body cells, and the A-T gene is involved in repairing such damage; so it's possible that people with an A-T mutation are unable to overcome the gene-level harm that smoking causes.

SOURCE: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, November 2008.