Onc says no vitamins

warrrior3

My sister has stage IV BC with mets to bones. She is treated at Sloane Kettering in NYC and says her MO told her not to take any vitamins. I have been taking a centrum silver for women

since before my Dx, since Dx have added a super calcium which includes magnesium and 400 mg vitamin D3, a 1000 mg Vitamin D3 and Fish oil. Does anyone have info regarding why not to take vitamins?

BreathingPeace

Hi warrior3,

I am stage IV for 3 years now and in treatment, and the vitamin issue is a bit controversal...however I believe on the side of not taking the vitamins while undergoing treatment, such as chemotherapy.  The theory, in a nut shell, is that taking vitamins and anti-oxidants, etc, the things that build strength in cells actually can counter act your treatment.  if you look at is as while it is strengthening your good cells it is also stregnthening the cancer cells...it does NOT know the difference.

I have been thru 4 different chemos treatments in the last 3 years and you do NOT want to go thru the hell of chemo and have a possibility of strengthening cancer cells which defeats the whole purpose of doing the chemo.....You can take the vitamins AFTER your treatments have worked and you are done with it.  There are many other alternatives such as acupunture that can help your fatigue and nausea etc, without clashing with the chemo.

Sending positive thoughts....

warrrior3

Breathing peace, thank you for your response. This does makes sense. My sister is now on her third Chemo, Halaven.

Anonymous

Hi Warrior, I have info about why one should take vitamins

Vitamin Supplement Use During Breast Cancer Treatment and Survival: A Prospective Cohort Study 

Results: During a mean follow-up of 4.1 years, 444 deaths and 532 recurrences occurred. Vitamin use shortly after breast cancer diagnosis was associated with reduced mortality and recurrence risk, adjusted for multiple lifestyle factors, sociodemographics, and known clinical prognostic factors.

Women who used antioxidants (vitamin E, vitamin C, multivitamins) had 18% reduced mortality risk (HR = 0.82, 95% CI: 0.65-1.02) and 22% reduced recurrence risk (HR = 0.78, 95% CI: 0.63-0.95). The inverse association was found regardless of whether vitamin use was concurrent or nonconcurrent with chemotherapy, but was present only among patients who did not receive radiotherapy.

Conclusions: Vitamin supplement use in the first 6 months after breast cancer diagnosis may be associated with reduced risk of mortality and recurrence

http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/20/2/262.short

Stormynyte

Good question! My onc also told me not to take any supplements or vitamins but since I don't take them anyway I never thought to ask why.

Member_of_the_Club

If you aren't in active treatment vitamins should be OK.  Honestly, I think this is one of those things that probably doesn't matter a whole lot, but you should probably err on teh side of caution and do what your onc says.