Vitamin Use In Cancer Care - and You Thought The Election Rhetoric Was Vicious?

January 22, 2009

The topic of the use of antioxidants during cancer therapy has a long history of controversy. Many pioneers in the field of cancer care and research including Charles Simone, MD, Ralph Moss, PhD, Kedar Prasad, MD, and Keith Block, MD among others have weighed into an area of conflicting research and a skewed viewpoint from many in allopathic medicine and the mainstream media. Life Extension has an excellent bibliography of the science behind the use of supplemental nutrition along with cancer therapy; click here to read more http://www.lef.org/protocols/prtcl-153refs.html .

While Charles Simone, M.D. and his colleagues in the Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine 2007:13(1)22-26 and 2007:13(2)40-47, click here to read more
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17283738?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=1&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed (part I)
and
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17405678 (part II) did a comprehensive review of the medical literature regarding the use of vitamins along with chemotherapy and radiation. As Dr. Simone pointed out in part I of this two-part article, the negative slant against supplements originated from an erroneous statement made in a 1997 New York Times article by a Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Hospital physician who contended that vitamin C interfered with chemotherapy and radiation in humans. As pointed out by Dr. Simone, the statement had no basis in scientific fact yet this philosophy has been adopted by the vast majority of the oncology community. Many a patient has been warned "Don't use vitamins while you are undergoing chemotherapy (or radiation), you will interfere with its effect." It appears that 'we are told the lie so often we start to believe it'.

The controversy appeared to continue with the recent publication in the medical journal Cancer Research of research from Sloan Kettering that suggests that vitamin C protects cancer cells from chemotherapeutic agents and that antioxidants such as vitamin C should be avoided during cancer therapy. Click here to read more http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081001/hl_nm/us_cancer_vitamin;_ylt=AgjOL94wTjSwDt46RnA7nX8Q.3QA. In summary, mice fed vitamin C before their chemotherapy actually had faster-growing tumors than mice not fed vitamin C. And the second part of the study appeared to demonstrate that human cancer cells in culture pretreated with vitamin C were 30-70% more resistant to chemotherapy agents than human cancer cells not pretreated with vitamin C. Jeanne Drisko, MD, professor of orthomolecular medicine and director of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center and president of the American College for Advancement in Medicine was quoted by Patrick Massey, MD, PhD medical director of CAM for Alexian Brothers Hospital Network in an article entitled "Study adds confusion on antioxidants during cancer treatment" that was published in The Daily Herald. Click here to read more http://www.dailyherald.com/story/print/?id=243317 . Dr. Drisko weighed in that the experiment was faulty making its results worthless. The researchers used dehydroascorbic acid and not vitamin C (ascorbic acid). Dehydroascobic acid is somewhat toxic to humans according to Dr. Drisko and the body works very hard to keep the blood levels of dehydroascorbic acid at a minimum. Because mice make their own vitamin C, Dr. Drisko pointed out that mouse results might not apply to humans.

Dr. Ralph Moss has also reflected on the controversy over the use of antioxidants during cancer therapy in his column War on Cancer in the November issue of Townsend Letter, #304, pages51-53. Dr. Moss studied a review article titled Should Supplemental Antioxidant Administration Be Avoided during Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy?" which appeared in the June 4, 2008 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Click here to read more http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/issue_pdf/frontmatter_pdf/100/11.pdf . Dr. Moss focused on a discussion of the famous Bairati (sometimes known as the Laval) study that studied the use of synthetic beta carotene and synthetic alpha tocopherol during cancer treatment. This decade-long study contained the bombshell that the apparent harmful effect of synthetic vitamins was entirely restricted to one group. That group was smokers. There was a decided difference between those who consumed beta carotene from their diet versus those who consumed synthetic beta carotene in supplemental form.

Supplemental multivitamin and mineral preparations that are typically sold in mass market fashion contain synthetic beta carotene. The discovery of more than 600 forms of carotene in the carotenoid family has prompted a discussion among integrative physicians that forms of carotene other than beta carotene may be more powerful in their immune stimulating effect. Many of these practitioners have adopted the use of natural mixed carotenes to provide the patient a blend of carotenes to support nutritional health. This is yet another example that integrative physicians wisely use natural mixed carotenoids rather than synthetic beta carotene in their patient recommendations.

Click here to find a nutritionally skilled practitioner http://www.healthfreedom.net/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=294. It is essential to support practitioners such as Dr. Drisko and physicians like her to overcome bias in research and clinical practice. AAHF serves a key role to protect the right of the practitioner to offer science-based integrative care to their patients. Click here to learn how you can support this important mission http://www.healthfreedom.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=185&Itemid=230 .

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Vitamin Use In Cancer Care - and You Thought The Election Rhetoric Was Vicious?