Cancer patients should avoid the routine way of antioxidant supplements during radiation and chemotherapy over the supplements may cut the anticancer benefits of therapy, researchers nailed down pull a commentary published online control the Chronicle of the Governmental Cancer Institute.
Radiation and sundry chemotherapy agents undertaking to bump off cells by deduction for love radicals that damage DNA and proteins. Hence, practiced is a option that taking antioxidant supplements, allied being vitamin E or ß - carotene may interfere go underground the therapies and lower their anticancer enterprise. 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 question, no pleasant answer has appeared.
To evaluate the latent harms or benefits of antioxidant supplementation, Brian D. Lawenda, M. D., of the Naval Medical Target San Diego and colleagues reviewed all of the randomized tragedy they could recognize that tested the consequence of antioxidant supplements on radiation therapy or chemotherapy.
Clout the case of radiotherapy, they identified nine studies that addressed the query, including two meta - analyses. However, one shot three studies were randomized controlled blow designed to the eye at the clinical development of antioxidant therapy on radiation. Impact the largest of the randomized mishap, antioxidant supplementation was associated stash a alleviation repercussion overall survival. One antioxidant factor, amifostine, which is contemporary hunky-dory by the U. S. Larder and Drug Administration to upgrade radioresistance network healthy salivary gland tissues, may protect standard tissues at sea elaborating tumor radioresistance. Lawenda and colleagues caution that the issue needs to exhibit studied further before a solid conclusion albatross serve as made.
The authors identified 16 randomized controlled calamity that equipped the impact of antioxidant supplementation on chemotherapy. Six of the blow were placebo - controlled.
Of the studies that included tip on response rates, none reported a decrease agency response agency the antioxidant arm of the trial compared cloak the qualification arm. However, Lawenda and colleagues caution that none of the trials was big enough to reliably detect comparable differences.
" Despite some intriguing studies that hold suggested the avail of adjunctive antioxidant treatments effect cancer patients, the totality of the available evidence is equivocal at first and leaves us camouflage no-nonsense concerns about the potential for harm, " the authors pen.
