06.01.07
For nearly a decade, oncologists have been telling patients undergoing chemotherapy or radiation therapy that they should not take antioxidants and other nutritional supplements because they interfere with treatment. However, a two-part article published in Alternative Therapies attempts to lay this myth to rest. Oncologist Charles Simone, MD, and colleagues searched MEDLINE (the National Library of Medicine’s database of more than 16 million medical journals dating back to the 1950s), and CANCERLIT (the National Cancer Institute’s database of articles related to cancer) and came up with 280 peer-reviewed studies on the concurrent use of chemo and/or radiation and dietary supplements. These included 50 human studies involving a total of 8251 patients. They found that antioxidants and other nutritional supplements did not interfere with conventional cancer treatments and actually enhanced the killing effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. In 47 of the human studies, supplements were also found to protect normal tissues and reduce the often-serious side effects of chemotherapy and radiation. And in 15 human studies, 3738 patients actually experienced increased survival rates—a finding that is rare for any cancer outcome.
Dr. Simone reports that the negative slant on supplements originated from an erroneous statement made in a 1997 New York Times article by a physician from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Hospital, who contended that vitamin C interfered with chemotherapy and radiation in humans. This statement had no scientific backing, yet without even reviewing the evidence, Dr. Simone says the entire oncology community adopted and continues to spread this harmful, biased misconception.
Dr. Simone reports that the negative slant on supplements originated from an erroneous statement made in a 1997 New York Times article by a physician from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Hospital, who contended that vitamin C interfered with chemotherapy and radiation in humans. This statement had no scientific backing, yet without even reviewing the evidence, Dr. Simone says the entire oncology community adopted and continues to spread this harmful, biased misconception.