Does antioxidant increase risk for cancer patients?

I attended a basic nutrition class before I started rads where we were advised to avoid antioxidants during active treatment as it was counter productive to radiation....once the cancer cells were destroyed it makes sense that the antioxidants would be a good thing

Other studies that it either doesn't help or actually hurts:

http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-preventi...

Radiologists advise against antioxidants during rads as normal cells will survive anyway, but a cancer cell near extinction might just derive enough protective oomph from the vitamins to turn right around and survive. This theory is not proven, but seems pretty widely held. It made sense to me, and I did not take a vitamin until I'd been on my AI a couple of weeks and felt confident it's anti-estrogen activity was busy clobbering any leftover bad guys.

I too find the studies all over the map and appreciate both links. But all my docs said no antioxidants during active treatment - chemo or radiation. They did approve one Centrum Silver multi-vitamin per day, which has MDR antioxidants included. I'm 1 year out and started extra Vit E 400IU again a couple of months ago since I always believed it helped keep my knees more "fluid" and less "creaky". I know - absolutely no scientific proof but it seemed to work in years past. Anyway, I'll finish this bottle but won't buy anymore. Not worth taking a chance at feeding any growing cancer cells - which I know are surely hiding somewhere in my body since I'm Stage 3 and have already had one recurrence.

Agree w/leggo on Centrum and similar manufactured products vs. natural vitamins derived from food sources (i.e. ascorbic acid vs. concentrated rosehips). Those drugstore brands (like Centrum) can hype you up -- so you might experience a temporary energy boost -- but they don't nourish your cells, and are lacking all the surrounding micronutrients. They also contain unhealthy fillers, binders and dyes. The end result is that your body actually has to work harder to eliminate them. This is also one of several reasons why some studies don't show a benefit with supplementation. They use isolated, test-tube nutrients, which have a totally different effect on our bodies than wholesome food does. (Off my soapbox...)

Leggo, you always give me a chuckle the way you put things. I am with you on this. I do take some supplements, a small calcium pill, sometimes magnesium if I am getting muscle cramps and I take probiotics. But in terms of vitamins, I have concluded that we really need to get our vitamins from actual food and that a pill is not the same thing. It does mean that you have to be mindful of what you eat though, but that is probably a good thing.

Yes, you can, but I was depleted of magnesium and needed a bit more than is easy to get just from diet. Ditto for probiotics. Also, I am very prone to yeast infections, since childhood. Probiotics in pill form is the only thing that effectively prevents that, for me

Looked around and found a review from 2007 that lists various antioxidants and their effectiveness when combined with different types of chemotherapy.

A review is a formal overview of multiple scientific studies with detailed information on populations or animals studied, amounts/dosages of medicines/supplements, and outcomes. So I would consider this paper as "evidence-based" as any journal article, i.e., something you can bring to your MO as a point of discussion. (Evidence-based medicine is that ever-popular "gold standard" right now.)

This review seems to suggest that there are benefits to certain antioxidants, based on study results.

http://pinestreetfoundation.org/breast-cancer-chemotherapy-antioxidants/