Antioxidants and cancer
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
"There are reasons to believe that taking antioxidants concurrently with chemotherapy or radiotherapy might be harmful; therefore, patients should be advised against it" until further clinical evidence exists to support antioxidant use, according to an article in the September issue of the American Cancer Society's journal CA. Although considerable in vitro and animal data show that antioxidants protect cells against radiation and clinical therapy, "it also follows that antioxidants might protect cancer cells, thereby reducing the oncologic effectiveness of cytotoxic therapy," author Gabriella D'Andrea, MD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, states. "Several large prevention trials have reported clinical data showing no benefit for supplementation," D'Andrea writes. Unless contrasting evidence is published, clinicians "must be guided by existing data," the article concludes...