Ann received this paper from Kedar N. Prasad, PhD, from the Center for Vitamins and Cancer Research, out of U of Colorado. He is the author of Vitamins and Cancer and we just met at the Nutritional Oncology Adjuvant Therapy conference in early September, 2000. Here are some quotes. "High Doses of Multiple Antioxidant Vitamins: Essential Ingredients in Improving the Efficacy of Standard Cancer Therapy" "The efficacy of standard tumor therapy (surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy) has reached a plateau. Therefore additional innovative approaches for the treatment of human cancer must be developed. Among such approaches, antioxidant vitamins (retinoids, vitamin E, vitamin C and carotenoids) appear to be most promising, because they at high doses not only directly inhibit the growth of various rodent and human cancer cells, but enhance the effects of standard tumor therapeutic agents in vitro and in vivo. Although high doses of individual antioxidant vitamins, primarily retinoids, are being used in the treatment of some human tumors, no well designed controlled studies on the effects of antioxidant vitamins in combination with standard therapy are in progress. The lack of enthusiasm among clinical oncologists for using high doses of antioxidant vitamins in combination with radiation therapy and chemotherapy is primarily based on fear that antioxidant vitamins may protect both normal and cancer cells against free radicals which are generated by x-irradiation and most chemotherapeutic agents. Several in vitro and in vivo studies suggest that such concerns are not valid." The authors go on to discuss: anti-cancer properties of individual antioxidant vitamins, anti-cancer properties of vitamin A and its analog, anti-cancer properties of vitamin C, anti-cancer properties of vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol),anti-cancer properties, of carotenoids, anti-cancer properties of B vitamins, efficacy of a mixture of antioxidant vitamins*, efficacy of antioxidants in combination with standard tumor therapeutic agents, efficacy of antioxidant vitamins in combination with hyperthermia, antioxidant vitamins in combination with certain biological response modifiers (butyric acid cAMP and interferon), reduction of toxicity of standard therapeutic agents by antioxidant vitamins, diet and lifestyle modifications. *"...a mixture of four antioxidants (13-cis-retinoic acid, sodium ascorbate, d-alpha-tocopherol succinate and polar carotenoids without any beta-carotene) markedly inhibited the growth of human melanoma cells in culture at doses where each component individually had no effect on growth. This observation was considered important because it suggested, for the first time, that a mixture of vitamins could be more effective than single vitamins in reducing tumor growth. The study also revealed the possibility that lower doses of individual vitamins as part of a mixture can be used in cancer treatment and thereby avoid the possibility of the toxicity seen with the single vitamins at higher doses, or growth stimulation at lower doses." Ann's NOTE: None of the studies were done on humans with cancer. That still remains to be begun. If people with cancer pushed for such studies, I am positive they would be started. I call this the patient track. We need studies that yield information of value to patient immediately. (retinoids and 13-cis-retinoic acid are vitamin A) Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.