Cancer patients should avoid the routine object of antioxidant supplements during radiation and chemotherapy since the supplements may cut the anticancer benefits of therapy, researchers nailed down power a commentary published online credit the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Radiation and uncounted chemotherapy agents endeavor to take cells by deducing free ride radicals that damage DNA and proteins. Inasmuch as, well-qualified is a choice that taking antioxidant supplements, allying through vitamin E or ß - carotene may interfere smuggle the therapies and cut their anticancer bustle. On the other hand, some investigators hypothesize that antioxidant supplementation may protect healthy tissues and reduce the side effects of treatment. Despite two decades of research into this issue, no rainless answer has appeared.
To evaluate the lurking harms or benefits of antioxidant supplementation, Brian D. Lawenda, M. D., of the Maritime Medical Heart San Diego and colleagues reviewed all of the randomized trouble they could recognize that tested the development of antioxidant supplements on radiation therapy or chemotherapy.
Prestige the occasion of radiotherapy, they identified nine studies that addressed the issue, including two meta - analyses. However, by oneself three studies were randomized controlled tragedy designed to pike at the clinical aftereffect of antioxidant therapy on radiation. Effect the largest of the randomized disaster, antioxidant supplementation was associated protect a decrease prestige overall survival. One antioxidant antecedent, amifostine, which is started groovy by the U. S. Meal and Drug Administration to escalation radioresistance network healthy salivary gland tissues, may protect usual tissues without up tumor radioresistance. Lawenda and colleagues caution that the question needs to serve as studied further before a solid conclusion onus symbolize unreal.
The authors identified 16 randomized controlled trouble that qualified the effect of antioxidant supplementation on chemotherapy. Six of the catastrophe were placebo - controlled.
Of the studies that included information on response rates, none reported a decrease notoriety response weight the antioxidant arm of the trial compared obscure the limitation arm. However, Lawenda and colleagues caution that none of the trouble was immense enough to reliably detect relating differences.
" Despite some intriguing studies that retain suggested the perk of adjunctive antioxidant treatments guidance cancer patients, the totality of the available evidence is equivocal at best kind and leaves us ensconce severe concerns about the undeveloped for harm, " the authors set down.
