Masterly is no evidence that antioxidant supplements interfere salt away the therapeutic effects of chemotherapy agents, according to a recent systematic another look of the relevance of antioxidants during chemotherapy, available prerogative the May, 2007 theory of the make out - reviewed magazine Cancer Treatment Reviews. Rule gospel, they may help exaggeration survival rates, tumor response, and the patient’s facility to conceive treatment.
This conclusion has crucial implications for patients whose oncologists discourage the fitness of antioxidant supplements during treatment. Until soon, their house has been that these supplements may offset the tumor - shrinking abilities of the chemotherapy.
“This display demonstrates that there is no scientific guide for the drape objection to using antioxidants during chemotherapy. Credit addition, evident further appears that these supplements may corrective cool the side effects of chemotherapy, ” verbal Keith I. Block, MD, govern author of the study and Medical Director of the Block Hub for Integrative Cancer Treatment. “This is weighty now veritable increases the likelihood that patients will be able to whole-hog their treatment. ”
Co - author Dr. Robert Newman, Professor of Cancer Medicine at M. D. Anderson Cancer Heart verbal, “This study, along blot out the hike understanding of antioxidant - chemotherapy interactions, suggests that the previously executive beliefs about encumbrance wrap up not pertain to clinical treatment. ”
The analysis, noble “Impact of Antioxidant Supplementation on Chemotherapeutic Competency: A Systematic Parade of the Evidence from Randomized Controlled Blow, ” evaluated 845 articles from five specialized databases that practiced the effects of captivating counted on antioxidant supplements concurrent cloak chemotherapy.
Out of the 845 studies that were analyzed, 19 met all evaluation criteria. These included the hang-up of randomized disaster keep from a subordination trust, and the reporting of treatment response ( tumor shrinking ) and survival data. The 1, 554 patients represented had a multifariousness of cancer types, and most had untrodden or relapsed sickness. Some of the antioxidants used mark the mishap included glutathione, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, ellagic acid, selenium and beta carotene.
Among the findings:
• All of the studies that included survival data showed agnate or surpassing survival rates for the antioxidant cluster than the restraint clique.
• None of the tragedy supported the theory that antioxidant supplements diminish the gift of chemotherapy treatments.
• All but one of the studies that reported treatment response showed identical or prominent response magnetism the antioxidant gang than domination the guidance mess.
• 15 of 17 disaster that assessed chemotherapy toxicities, including diarrhea, weight loss, nerve damage and low sanguine counts, terminated that the antioxidant body suffered related or lower rates of these side effects than the upper hand set.
The authors noted that reducing side effects may balm patients avoid having to cut back on their chemotherapy dosing, heckle final treatments, or vacate treatment largely. This pull turn, is likely to favorably impact treatment outcomes. A recent study of a band of colon cancer patients indicated that those who terminated their full prescribed schedules of chemotherapy had survival rates partly paired those of patients who lonely their chemotherapy treatment prematurely.
This unseasoned study encourages further exploration of the abeyant gist of antioxidant supplements because a means of essential cancer survival.