My oncologist told me not to take supplements and antioxidants because it will interfere with chemotherapy

Since we are on the topic of the questions that I receive from clients, I need to address the following question:  Do supplements and antioxidants interfere with the effectiveness of chemotherapy or radiation? A couple of weeks ago, I was speaking to a potential client who was told by her oncologist that she should not use Vitamin C infusions in her treatment plan because it will "interfere" with the effectiveness of chemotherapy. I am continually shocked at the boldness of oncologists to say that their patients cannot do some type of nutritional approach with absolutely no in depth knowledge about nutrition and cancer. Oncologists, like other doctors, do not receive any training on holistic nutritional approaches to healing. Instead, they receive a few hours of training on nutrition based upon the paradigm of a dietitian. And yet they make claims that Vitamin C interferes with chemotherapy. This is a very dangerous approach because as you will see in my understanding, nutrition, supplements, and antioxidants are shown to protect and preserve an individual who has chosen to use chemotherapy and radiation.  

Many cancer patients do not die from cancer, rather; they die from pure malnutrition or side effects from chemotherapy and radiation. 22-67% of cancer patients die from cachexia which is a wasting away disease. One of the side effects of chemotherapy drugs is leaky gut syndrome and the digestive track can become so severely damaged that the person cannot absorb nutrients properly in the small intestine. Further, chemotherapy and radiation alone are sufficient biological stressors which can induce malnutrition.

Many times, I find out that an oncologist recommended no supplements and especially not antioxidants because it "interferes" with the effective nature of chemotherapy and radiation. I even had a client state that her oncologist recommended no grapefruits because of the high Vitamin C content! And the same oncologists have been known to recommend ice cream so that the patient can gain weight. I have to laugh because chemotherapy has a 2-3% survival rate at 5 years according to the SEER report. Sometimes, I am hoping that something will interfere with "effectiveness" of chemotherapy because of how poorly it has clinically performed.

In fact, the answer to the question of antioxidants interfering with chemotherapy is directly opposite of the assumption of the oncologist. Antioxidants dramatically improve the ability for chemotherapy and radiation to kill the tumor. In an anaerobic environment or an environment deficient in oxygen, antioxidants like Vitamin C become pro-oxidative.  Pro-oxidants are free radicals that are unstable and can cause tissue damage. Cancer cells will receive high amounts of Vitamin C because it seems like glucose to the cells (cancer cells have been proven to have a high affinity towards glucose, consuming 7-8 times the amount of glucose as normal cells). And in the anaerobic environment of the tumor, the Vitamin C becomes like a free radical and causes damage to the tumor. Thus, cancer cells become more vulnerable to the pro-oxidative effect of chemotherapy and radiation.

Patients with mouth cancer were given injections of K-3 prior to radiation therapy and doubled their odds for 5-year survival (20% vs. 39%).  When Vitamins C and K were given to animals with implanted tumors, they experienced greatly improved anti-cancer effects with chemotherapy. Vitamins K and E added to chemotherapy drugs and cultured leukemia cells showed a 300% improvement in growth inhibition when compared to the chemotherapy drugs alone. I wonder what the test would look like comparing Vitamins K and E added to cultured leukemia cells without chemotherapy? This study has not been done. In fact, studies on nutrients alone without chemotherapy are not done. Part of the fear and lack of study is the fact that nutrients may actually perform better than chemotherapy. If it were proven that nutrients are more therapeutic than chemotherapy to cancer cells, an entire industry would be proven to be a fraud to the highest degradation of ethical standards.

Lung cancer patients given antioxidants prior to, during, and after radiation and chemotherapy experienced enhanced tumor destruction and longer life spans. When EPA and GLA were both added to human tumor cell lines along with chemotherapy, the cytotoxic effects of the drug was increased. In addition, animals treated with radiation for cancer experienced significant improvements in therapeutic outcomes when beta-carotene and vitamin A were added to the treatment protocol.

In my practice, I find that clients diagnosed with cancer have many significant nutritional deficiencies. One of those deficiencies that is vital to heart and brain health is Vitamin E. Heart damage is a potential side effect of chemotherapy drugs. Animals with cancer tested for Vitamin E levels experienced the greatest damage to their hearts the more extreme the Vitamin E deficiency tested. In one study, 300 mg of Vitamin E every day reduced neurotoxicity caused by cisplatin (a chemo drug) from 86% to 31%, and a 55% reduction in tingling and pain in nervous system. There was no loss in tumor kill rate from cisplatin.

Niacin combined with aspirin in 106 bladder cancer patients receiving surgery and radiation showed a 5-year survival rate of 72% vs. 27% over the control group. Loading cancer patients with 500-6,000mg of niacin is effective at reversing oxygen deficiency in solid tumor masses. Selenium is another known therapeutic agent for cancer patients. In a culture of human leukemia cells, selenium was selectively toxic. Selenium and Vitamin E did not change the efficacy of chemo drugs in ovarian and cervical cancers.

These are just some of the statistics of the protective nature of supplements and antioxidants in the lives of cancer patients. Just as I recommended not to lose hope when an oncologist tells you that you have a rare, aggressive form of cancer that cannot be addressed properly in modern oncology, I also recommend that you do not take the nutritional recommendations of your oncologist seriously and receive a second opinion from someone who has received extensive training in holistic approaches to cancer. After reading this article, you have my permission to go and eat a grapefruit and sign up for Vitamin C infusions.  Just don't tell your oncologist.

Beating Cancer With Nutrition, Quillin, Patrick.