The problem with the vitamin E study (which showed no benefit, and in fact, a detrimental impact, of the vitamin) was that the patients were also given beta-carotene for a while. This was stopped but reviewers noted that the B-carotene (which has been shown to increase lung cancer risk of smokers in a large NCI trial) compromised interpretation of the results. The fact that a lot of recurrences occured in the lungs and trachea seems to indicate that the HNC patients may also have been smokers (which do constitutute the great majority of oral cancer cases).

Ideally this study should be repeated sans the B-carotene but that would be unethical based on the first study's results.

Btw, there are other studies which show a benefit to Vitamin E in chemotherapy and no difference tumor control and survival (e.g. J. Clin. Oncol. 2003, 21 (5)).

This is NOT a recommendation to go out a take Vitamin E, it is just a caution not to base all one's decisions on the results of any single scientific study. A certain amount of informed skepticism is always in order...

Gail