Vitamins and Cancer: To Take or Not Take?

Copyright: © 2012 Eskin NAM. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Oxidative stress is involved in the development of many chronic diseases including cancer. It has been defined as an imbalance between the level of pro-oxidants (reactive oxygen species, ROS) produced during normal metabolism and the organism’s endogenous antioxidant defence system. The role of various natural antioxidant defence systems to minimize oxidative damage caused by these free radicals was established using animal models in which these defence systems were knocked out [1]. This resulted in the promotion of cancer which was attributed to DNA damage by the formation of 8-hydroxy2-deoxyguanosine (8OHdg). Consequently, a concerted effort has been made to establish the efficacy of such traditional antioxidants as vitamins A, E and C, as well as a search for new antioxidants to minimize such damage. Over 200 epidemiological studies strongly associated low consumption of fruits and vegetables with the incidence of cancer suggesting that antioxidants might be a solution [2]. Consequently, should cancer patients be encouraged to take multivitamin supplements as part of their therapy?