There’s new evidence of a link between bioactive additives with antioxidants and increased growth of malignant tumors. Experiments on cancerous tissues of animals and humans confirm that they accelerate the growth of melanoma, one of the most dangerous tumors.
Antioxidants are not the way to treat cancer. At best they will have no effect, but they can worsen the disease, says Christelle Le gall Beneroso (Kristell Le Gal Beneroso), PhD in medical Sciences from the University of Gothenburg (University of Gothenburg) in Sweden.
The idea that antioxidants protect against cancer due to its ability to neutralize so-called free radicals, been questioned in several studies in recent years. It became clear that antioxidants protect not only normal but also cancer cells.
The same research team from Gothenburg under the supervision of Professor Martin Bergö (Martin Berg) had previously shown that the metastasis of melanoma and lung cancer increases with the use of certain antioxidants.
Christelle Le gall Beneroso studied how the cells of lung cancer and melanoma humans and mice respond to the presence of some antioxidants. The latter was associated with the mitochondria, responsible for the synthesis of free radicals.
In theory, binding to mitochondria should reduce the synthesis of free radicals, prevent DNA damage, leading to cancer, she said.
But the data from this experiment confirmed the consideration that antioxidants may be harmful, accelerating cancer growth.
Hypothetically, you can help your healthy cells, but there is not sufficient evidence that this is happening in this case. On the other hand, we know that if a person has cancer, not even diagnosed, antioxidants may enhance tumor growth, – concludes Christelle Le gall Beneroso.
Ukrainian Andrei