A recent study by researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle revealed that vitamin supplements do not protect against lung cancer, and may in fact increase the risk of developing it.

Dr. Christopher G. Slatore and colleagues analyzed the supplement-taking habits and lung cancer incidence of almost 77,126 people in Washington State VITAL (VITamins And Lifestyle) program ages 50 to 76 over a four-year period.

“Our study of supplemental multivitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E and folate did not show any evidence for a decreased risk of lung cancer. Indeed, increasing intake of supplemental vitamin E was associated with a slightly increased risk of lung cancer,” study author Dr. Christopher G. Slatore, a fellow in the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Washington, said in a statement, according to the Medical News Today.

A number of 521 people from the 77,126 developed lung cancer. Slatore found a significant association between lung cancer and supplemental vitamin E in addition to the typical associations with smoking history, family history, and age.

According to the model, a person taking 100 mg a day of vitamin E for 10 years increases the risk of lung cancer by seven percent, which means a 28 percent increase in risk for a 400 mg a day dose for ten years. The risk was higher in current smokers. In fact, current smokers who took the highest doses of vitamin E – at least 215 milligrams a day for 10 years – were 59 percent more likely to get lung cancer than those who did not take any, a difference that was unlikely to be due to chance.

In an accompanying editorial, Tim Byers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine says that many people use vitamin supplements as a substitute for a healthy diet, but he said other compounds in fresh fruit and vegetables are also important.

“Fruits contain not only vitamins but also many hundreds of other phytochemical compounds whose functions are not well understood,” he writes.

One study found a 20 percent increase in cancer risk among people who ate the least amount of fruit, and this has led to the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Cancer Society to recommend two fruit servings each day. Two servings of fruit per day "would likely lead to a reduced risk for lung cancer, as well as reduced risk of several other cancers and cardiovascular disease," writes Dr. Byers.