[Selenium supplementation with bread]. / Szelénpótlás kenyérrel.

Bread produced with selenium-enriched yeast was given to ten volunteers. The daily dose contained approximately 100 micrograms of selenium. The subjects' mean baseline whole blood selenium concentration (52.2 +/- 16.7 micrograms/l) was indicative of a suboptimal selenium status. After two weeks of supplementation, the subjects' mean whole blood selenium level increased significantly (to 66.1 +/- 11.9 micrograms/l). Supplementation of selenium-enriched bread seems to be an easily implementable and promptly acting method of selenium status improvement.

Selenium in the blood of patients with colorectal cancer and neoplastic polyp.

Samples of whole blood were obtained from 51 patients with newly diagnosed colorectal cancer as well as from 76 patients with neoplastic colorectal polyp, and from 30 healthy blood bank donors. Selenium was determined by the fluorimetric method. Significantly decreased selenium concentrations of blood samples from patients with colorectal cancer and villous adenoma were found. There was not any correlation between the blood selenium levels of patients with adenomatous polyp and the severity of dysplasia in removed polyps. The lowest mean selenium level in patients with villous adenoma indicates that selenium deficiency may be an important factor in the development of colorectal cancer arising from villous adenomas.