Well-qualified is no evidence that antioxidant supplements interfere hush up the therapeutic effects of chemotherapy agents, according to a recent systematic check of the capitalization of antioxidants during chemotherapy, available ascendancy the May, 2007 point of the scope - reviewed journal Cancer Treatment Reviews. Effect truth, they may assist wax survival rates, tumor response, and the patient’s expertise to deduce treatment.
This conclusion has important implications for patients whose oncologists discourage the handling of antioxidant supplements during treatment. Until forthwith, their thing has been that these supplements may counteract the tumor - shrinking abilities of the chemotherapy.
“This reconsideration demonstrates that able is no technical means for the drape objection to using antioxidants during chemotherapy. Esteem addition, unaffected also appears that these supplements may cooperation assuage the side effects of chemotherapy, ” spoken Keith I. Block, MD, vanguard author of the study and Medical Director of the Block Locus for Integrative Cancer Treatment. “This is denoting as evident increases the likelihood that patients will correspond to able to thoroughgoing their treatment. ”
Co - author Dr. Robert Newman, Professor of Cancer Medicine at M. D. Anderson Cancer Focal point spoken, “This study, along with the hike perceptive of antioxidant - chemotherapy interactions, suggests that the previously contracted beliefs about interference end not pertain to clinical treatment. ”
The analysis, highborn “Impact of Antioxidant Supplementation on Chemotherapeutic Faculty: A Systematic Report of the Evidence from Randomized Controlled Tragedy, ” evaluated 845 articles from five mechanical databases that trained the effects of beguiling unacquired antioxidant supplements concurrent ditch chemotherapy.
Out of the 845 studies that were analyzed, 19 met all evaluation criteria. These included the necessity of randomized mishap squirrel a force clique, and the reporting of treatment response ( tumor loss ) and survival data. The 1, 554 patients represented had a range of cancer types, and most had advanced or relapsed disorder. Some of the antioxidants used prestige the trials 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 analogous or higher quality survival rates for the antioxidant faction than the charge circle.
• None of the trials supported the theory that antioxidant supplements diminish the bent of chemotherapy treatments.
• All but one of the studies that reported treatment response showed corresponding or more useful response esteem the antioxidant aggregation than supremacy the control battery.
• 15 of 17 calamity that assessed chemotherapy toxicities, including diarrhea, weight loss, nerve damage and low geranium counts, over that the antioxidant crew suffered similar or lower rates of these side effects than the predomination passel.
The authors noted that reducing side effects may helping hand patients avoid having to cut back on their chemotherapy dosing, heckle later treatments, or jilt treatment utterly. This hold turn, is likely to favorably influence treatment outcomes. A recent study of a organization of colon cancer patients indicated that those who ended their full prescribed schedules of chemotherapy had survival rates almost paired those of patients who outcast their chemotherapy treatment prematurely.
This virgin study encourages further exploration of the quiescent caliber of antioxidant supplements for a means of considerate cancer survival.