Individuals who took a nutritional supplement called Factor D continued to have a lower gastric cancer rate 10 years after supplementation ceased, a new study has found.

This is the conclusion scientists have drawn from long-term follow-up data from the randomized, double-blind General Population Nutrition Intervention Trial in Linxian, China.

The trial followed 29,584 adults between the ages of 40 and 69 years who took the dietary supplement from 1986 to 1991.

The initial results showed a significant reduction in risk of gastric cancer and overall mortality in individuals taking factor D, and the 10-year follow-up study that confirmed the results was recently reviewed by Dr Philip R. Taylor of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, and his colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

“The persistence of risk reduction for up to 10 years … is consistent with an emerging new paradigm in cancer [research], namely that prevention may be achievable with short-term as opposed to life-long treatment,” the authors write.

Vitamins and minerals found in Factor D include selenium, vitamin E and beta-carotene.