Antioxidants May Aid Cancer

In fact, a few large clinical trials even show the opposite. If we remove all free radicals we may be preventing their good actions.

Metastasis is the spread of cancer from one part of the body to another.

Antioxidants are often promoted for their “cancer-killing” properties, but in a recent study, researchers found strong evidence to suggest that these unique molecules may actually promote the spread of certain cancer cells – a finding that could change the way doctors advise cancer patients to eat.

The findings from this study were published online today in Nature through an article entitled “Oxidative stress inhibits distant metastasis by human melanoma cells”.

Most of our work was carried out in lab-grown melanoma cells, so there’s still more work to be done to show whether the drugs that inhibit Rho signals could stop melanoma spreading in patients. If there’s more Rac and less Rho, the cells become long and spindly. “These cells act like they’re covered in Velcro – they stick to their neighbours and can’t move about as much”, Dr Sanz-Moreno tells us.

“In contrast, if Rho is calling the shots and there isn’t much Rac, the cells rearrange their internal scaffolding and round up, becoming less sticky and travelling more freely”. The mice were injected with skin cancer and prostate cancer cells taken from a human. It is also used in supplements for body building and taken for nutritional purposes. For example, a few are used by the immune system to attack pathogens. So, free radicals steal electrons from living cell when left alone.

When the researchers dug down into what was happening on the genetic level, they discovered what was going on. The animals were more likely to survive if the cancer cells had higher levels of PIG3, linked to the increase in free radicals. And this turned out to be because their tumours grew more slowly and didn’t spread as much. Our work adds to the growing evidence that antioxidant supplements can, in a few circumstances, do more harm than good. “Administration of antioxidants to the mice allowed more of the metastasizing melanoma cells to survive, increasing metastatic disease burden”, says Morrison.

In order to gain stability, unstable free radicals steam electrons from nearby molecules, making the other molecule a free radical, which steals electron from other molecules forming a cascade. However, a few of those trials had to be stopped because the patients getting the antioxidants were dying faster. High-dose antioxidants could make these treatments less effective.

The team found that when antioxidants were administered to the mice, the cancer spread more quickly than in mice that did not get antioxidants. Were they taking regular intake of antioxidants before the discovery of cancer in them and how they kept on administering themselves with antioxidants after the discovery of cancer in them.

Once again scientists have come up with a study that too, similar to earlier few, raises questions on the consumption of antioxidants.