I was told I could/should take a multi vit a day but like everything else I was told I ignored. lol I was one bad patient.

Pete
I doubt that antioxidants promote cancer growth at least not directly. (please send me the link to the article)

What is likely the issue here is this. Large amounts of antioxidants interfere with treatment (radiation/chemo). The idea with some chemo and radiation is to damage the crap out of your DNA and if the cells are replicating rapidly they cannot keep up with the repair and decide to die. Antioxidants protect cellular components. The concern is that large amounts of antioxidants may also protect cancer cells from damage. Therefore you do not use AO during therapy but you can (should) take them afterwards.

M

Markus, a local Seattle TV station did a very recent show on cancer stuf; I'm almost certain I read the antioxidant info on their site, but can't find it again <very frustrated>.

Here's one from OCF archives stating "Worse, some research suggests that antioxidants may actually feed cancers, protecting the very cancer cells patients are trying to attack."

http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/news/story.asp?newsId=1119

Here's another from OCF archives on AOs raising risk of cancer recurrence:

http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/news/story.asp?newsId=946

Here's an article going both ways:

http://www.itmonline.org/arts/antioxidants.htm

Here's one from the local station stating the hops in beer is good against cancer (But not the alcohol, of course):

http://www.king5.com/health/cancer/stories//NW_121908HEK_cancer_breakthroughs_beer_SW.6cd9aa11.html

And another saying caffeine is good against skin cancer:

http://www.king5.com/health/cancer/...er_breakthroughs_coffee_SW.6ca3b0c0.html

During RT you want to cells to be sensitive to damage, especially (ideally only) the cancer cells. So antioxidants are not recommended at that time.
The fact that cancer cells are likely to use vitamin C is NOT surprising they are metabolically more active so you would expect that actually. I have a big problem with treatment of cancer cells in vitro (Petri dish). To put is bluntly this is very tricky to interpret at best and in my opinion mostly BS. Point in case, you can microwave you petri dish and kill all cancer cells and voila your cancer is cured, hardly applicable to an organism! Hell, with a fine enough needle and a microscope you could physically kill the cancer cells in a Petri dish.
After the RT treatment you are presumably cancer free and you want antioxidants to prevent unwanted DNA damage and help the immune system. So the situation is different. However there are a lot of different antioxidants that have different effects.

M

Agreed -- The thing that stuck out the most in the article I read and now can't find again was that the AO supplements were potentially harmful during radiation but getting them from the various fruits didn't seem to be -- I took the same route and didn't use anything -- Of course, during radiation, and for some time thereafter, I wasn't exactly hankering for things that needed to be chewed and swallowed!

Excuse me but I felt like I was microwaved to a near death state during my Tx. lol I often compare our radiation therapy to being in a microwave to newbies to explain that's why we suffer so much after the Rad Txs stop, i.e. we continue to cook just like meat in a microwave when it's turned off. Now granted I'm not as technical as Markus (he's one of the most technical on this site) but that's my CPA interpretation.

Yep, when people ask me how was it going through txs, I tell them picture yourself getting cooked from the inside out. Most don't understand how hard it can be and it's not easy painting a picture. I actually had one person tell me I was acting because I didn't want to go back to work and that I was milking the system...blah..blah..blah...I did 7 weeks and spent 9 or 10 days in the hospital loosing over 40 pounds through tx...one more week and I felt like I was going to literally die.

I was told to take one multi-vitamin a day and stay away from all AO's...I stayed away from everything except my liquids. Most of those liquid drinks like Ensure, Boost and VHC have so many vitamins that a multi would just be redundant.

Of course now I would assume the docs would not advocate taking a multi vit or any vits for that matter other than what we get from our diet since vits in a pill form don't seem to have any benefit and may even be detrimental to those taking them. OK so next ice cream will be bad for you.

I use the microwave analogy to explain the radiation and also the sunburn analogy (coming out of the sun doesn't stop the burn from feeling worse!).

I personally don't buy into the rationale that ONLY natural vits are good; granted, there may be a few vits that are ineffective or less effective when taken "out of context" because they need something else to work properly, but not all will be that way.

And, one must factor in that some people have an almost religious faith in diets, vitamins, etc. that goes beyond the chemistry.

This topic was on the national news not long ago. I take Centrum Silver and the Drs say to keep taking them. Hell, they have been part of my morning my routine for as long as I can remember. Maybe that's why I don't look near my age but have a lot of health problems. LOL One never knows does one?