You have read in these pages many times my recommendation for cancer patients to use antioxidants during their radiation treatments. That advice goes completely against conventional medical dogma. But the tide is finally beginning to turn.
Much of the medical dogma stems from a study Isabelle Bairati, MD, and colleagues published in April 2005. They found that using synthetic antioxidants during radiation would raise your risk of recurrence. That led to oncologists all over the world lambasting antioxidants.
However, Bairatis group revisited their results and discovered a major flaw in their conclusion. They found that the danger from synthetic antioxidants was limited to one particular sub-population: cigarette smokers. Actually, it affected only a small group of smokers — those who continued to smoke while receiving radiation.
Astonishingly, it was only smoking during the course of radiation therapy that caused the problem. Smoking either before or after the radiation was not a problem. But smoking during treatment caused a statistically dramatic increase in the risk of a recurrence. That huge risk skewed the statistics for the group as a whole. It led to the erroneous conclusion that antioxidants interfered with radiotherapy in the general patient population.
Now you know the rest of the story.
As you may know, I am not a fan of radiation therapy. But if you have cancer and plan to use it and/or chemotherapy, I do encourage you to use natural (not synthetic) antioxidants. I and my colleagues have consistently seen better outcomes in patients and less toxicity.
With as much press as the original study received, you would think the national press would be eager to tell you of the error. But you probably have not seen anything — nor will you. And if your oncologist warns you about taking antioxidants, show him this and tell him his recommendation is based on very erroneous data.
Ref: Bairati I, Meyer F, Gelinas M, et al: Randomized trial of antioxidant vitamins to prevent acute adverse effects of radiation therapy in head and neck cancer patients. J Clin Oncol. 2005;23:5805-5813; Bairati I, Meyer F, Gelinas M, et al. A randomized trial of antioxidant vitamins to prevent second primary cancers in head and neck cancer patients. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2005;97:481-488.