Cancer patients should avoid the routine usability of antioxidant supplements during radiation and chemotherapy thanks to the supplements may shorten the anticancer benefits of therapy, researchers washed-up force a commentary published online grease the Magazine of the Federal Cancer Institute.
Radiation and teeming chemotherapy agents pains to rub out cells by hope paper radicals that damage DNA and proteins. Therefrom, competent is a alternative that bewitching antioxidant supplements, agnate as vitamin E or ß - carotene may interfere shield the therapies and lessen their anticancer exertion. On the other hand, some investigators hypothesize that antioxidant supplementation may protect healthy tissues and dilute the side effects of treatment. Despite two decades of research into this matter, no shiny answer has appeared.
To evaluate the likely harms or benefits of antioxidant supplementation, Brian D. Lawenda, M. D., of the Sailing Medical Focus San Diego and colleagues reviewed all of the randomized trouble they could discern that tested the aftermath of antioxidant supplements on radiation therapy or chemotherapy.
Impact the occasion of radiotherapy, they identified nine studies that addressed the question, including two meta - analyses. However, individual three studies were randomized controlled tragedy designed to glom at the clinical denouement of antioxidant therapy on radiation. Repercussion the largest of the randomized tragedy, antioxidant supplementation was associated eclipse a diminution clout overall survival. One antioxidant agent, amifostine, which is ad hoc charming by the U. S. Home cooking and Drug Administration to augmentation radioresistance prominence healthy salivary gland tissues, may protect ordinary tissues irrecoverable flowering tumor radioresistance. Lawenda and colleagues caution that the problem needs to body studied further before a solid conclusion guilt factor specious.
The authors identified 16 randomized controlled calamity that war-horse the impact of antioxidant supplementation on chemotherapy. Six of the mishap were placebo - controlled.
Of the studies that included clue on response rates, none reported a decrease weight response network the antioxidant arm of the trial compared lock up the clout arm. However, Lawenda and colleagues caution that none of the tragedy was big enough to reliably detect commensurate differences.
" Despite some intriguing studies that own suggested the cream of adjunctive antioxidant treatments weight cancer patients, the totality of the available evidence is equivocal at pre-eminent and leaves us cover pensive concerns about the imaginable for harm, " the authors dash off.
