Cancer Treatment with Pro and Antioxidant Agents

Sabiha Fatima

Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh,Saudi Arabia

Dr. Sabiha Fatima, Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: Cancer Therapy; Oxidative Stress; Antioxidants

Abstract

In almost all types of cancers mild to moderately elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) activate oncogenic signaling pathway which facilitates cancer initiation progression, invasion and metastasis. Extremely high level of ROS generated by conventional cancer therapy damages cancer cells and leads to cell death. Unfortunately, the ROS-elevating therapeutic approach not only enhance oxidative stress in cancer cells but also leads to oxidative stress induced toxicity in normal cells. In cancer ROS play a doubled-edged sword role. Therefore, to limit the undesired side effects in the normal cells and enhance oxidative stress in cancer cells dietary antioxidants have been proposed as an adjuvant in cancer therapy. Several clinical and experimental studies have shown that dietary antioxidants not only reduce the adverse effects of anticancer agents but also increase the efficacy of conventional cancer therapy. However, some evidences support that antioxidant supplements during the cancer treatments reduce the effectiveness of anticancer therapy. But till now there is no strong scientific evidence in support for or against taking antioxidant supplements during cancer treatment. Therefore, further clinical studies are needed to determine the efficacy of antioxidants in cancer therapy, their optimal doses and effectiveness in a specific cancer types.

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