Research shows that combining high dose antioxidants with probiotics enhances cancer treatment outcomes, suggesting a promising new strategy.
Chemo/radiation therapy have increased 5-year survival rate in most cancers; however, acute and late adverse side-effects of treatment remain. Therefore, a new approach to reduce toxicity and improve survival rate is needed. In 2014, FLASH radiation therapy which delivers radiation dose to tumor at a dose rate of 40 Gy/sec compared to dose rate of 0.01 Gy/sec of conventional radiation therapy protected normal tissue against acute injury, while the tumor response rate was like conventional radiation therapy. Therefore, another new approach is needed. Individual antioxidants such as vitamin C and vitamin E succinate at high doses inhibit the growth of cancer cells and enhance the effects of chemotherapeutic agents and x-irradiation on cancer cells, while protecting or no significant effects on normal cells in culture. While searching for mechanisms of high dose antioxidants, it was found that cancer cells require glucose and glutamine for their survival. This led us to propose that high doses of antioxidants kill cancer cells by inhibiting the uptake and metabolism of these nutrients. Some antioxidants prevent uptake of glucose, while others prevent the uptake of glutamine by cancer cells. Therefore, we developed of a formulation of high doses of multiple antioxidants which may kill tumor cells by inhibiting the uptake of glucose and glutamine and enhance the effectiveness of chemo/radiation therapy while reducing their toxicity Since Intestinal dysbiosis participates in the development and progression of cancer and reduces the effectiveness of current therapies, we propose that combining probiotics and prebiotics with high doses of multiple antioxidants before, during, and after treatment may markedly enhance survival rate of patients more than produced by current therapies, while reducing their side-effects.
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Kedar N. Prasad* (2026) studied this question.
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