Antioxidants and Other Nutrients Do Not Interfere With Chemotherapy, Radiation Therapy and Can Increase Kill and Increase Survival

Charles Simone, MD, et al

The oncology community, including patients, has been told not to use food supplement antioxidants and other nutrients during chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy because oncologists at an influential oncology institution erroneously exclaimed that antioxidants interfere with radiation and some chemotherapies because those modalities kill by generating free radicals that are neutralized by antioxidants, and, that folic acid interferes with methotrexate. This is despite the common use of amifostine and dexrazoxane, two prescription antioxidants. To assess all evidence concerning antioxidant and other nutrients used concommitantly with chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy.  MEDLINE and CANCERLIT were searched from 1965 to November 2003 using words: vitamins, antioxidants, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. Bibliographies of articles were searched.  All studies reporting concomitant nutrient use with chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy (280 peer-reviewed articles including 62 in vitro and 218 in vivo) were indiscriminately included. CONCLUSION: Since the 1970s, 280 peer-reviewed in vitro and in vivo studies, including 50 human studies involving 8,521 patients, 5,081 of whom were given nutrients, have consistently shown that non-prescription antioxidants and other nutrients do not interfere with cancer therapeutic modalities, enhance their killing capabilities, decrease their side effects, protect normal tissues, and in 15 human studies, 3,738 patients actually had prolonged survival.

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Integrative Oncology: The Last Ten Years

Barry Boyd, MD

In the last 10 years, there have been dramatic changes in all areas of integrative patient care. None have been more dramatic than the field of cancer care, where it has gone from alternative and complementary treatments delivered outside the conventional setting, to the integration of many of these approaches into the care of the cancer patient.  These changes have, in many cases, been driven by patient demand and supported by private funding and out-of-pocket payments by patients themselves. Virtually all major medical centers have sections devoted to integrative patient care -- whether true stand-alone centers or sections with a research interest in this area. This is particularly true of the major cancer centers where most have developed integrative cancer programs including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins, and the Dana Farber Cancer Center.  Despite this interest in developing integrative approaches to cancer, many medical oncologists remain skeptical about the value of these modalities.

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Information on the Relationship Between Aging, Oxidative Stress and Antioxidants