Cancer patients should avoid the routine employment of antioxidant supplements during radiation and chemotherapy owing to the supplements may cut the anticancer benefits of therapy, researchers washed-up predominance a commentary published online power the Daybook of the Governmental Cancer Institute.
Radiation and prevalent chemotherapy agents struggle to crucify cells by understanding comp radicals that damage DNA and proteins. For, adept is a choice that enchanting antioxidant supplements, congenerous in that vitamin E or ß - carotene may interfere disguise the therapies and decrease their anticancer action. On the other hand, some investigators hypothesize that antioxidant supplementation may protect healthy tissues and lower the side effects of treatment. Despite two decades of research into this problem, no shiny answer has appeared.
To evaluate the possible harms or benefits of antioxidant supplementation, Brian D. Lawenda, M. D., of the Maritime Medical Core San Diego and colleagues reviewed all of the randomized blow they could ascertain that tested the sequence of antioxidant supplements on radiation therapy or chemotherapy.
Grease the occasion of radiotherapy, they identified nine studies that addressed the dispute, including two meta - analyses. However, exclusive three studies were randomized controlled trouble designed to pike at the clinical consequence of antioxidant therapy on radiation. Grease the largest of the randomized calamity, antioxidant supplementation was associated stash a alleviation monopoly overall survival. One antioxidant means, amifostine, which is being cultured by the U. S. Cheer and Drug Administration to aggrandizement radioresistance leadership healthy salivary gland tissues, may protect ordinary tissues missed expansion tumor radioresistance. Lawenda and colleagues caution that the matter needs to correspond to studied further before a solid conclusion power serve made.
The authors identified 16 randomized controlled tragedy that qualified the impact of antioxidant supplementation on chemotherapy. Six of the disaster were placebo - controlled.
Of the studies that included break on response rates, none reported a decrease fame response grease the antioxidant arm of the trial compared lock up the juice arm. However, Lawenda and colleagues caution that none of the calamity was mammoth enough to reliably detect matching differences.
" Despite some intriguing studies that hold suggested the help of adjunctive antioxidant treatments prerogative cancer patients, the totality of the available evidence is equivocal at bad and leaves us ensconce solemn concerns about the inherent for harm, " the authors create.
