In the published case report, a patient with advanced progressive lung cancer took part in a study in which selenite was given to patients with treatment-resistant cancer.

After treatment, the tumor disappeared, and the patient subsequently remained tumor-free for 10 years. The researchers also observed that the tumor marker sPD-L1 decreased sharply during treatment, which may indicate that selenite helped activate the immune system against the tumor.

“The results are very promising, and the case is exceptional as the expected survival of this patient could only have been a few months at most, yet she survived tumor-free for 10 years. This concerns only one patient, so no firm conclusions can be drawn until confirmatory studies involving larger groups have been completed,” says Ola Brodin, associate professor at the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, and senior consultant at Karolinska University Hospital.