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Canada

"Antioxidants may protect cancer tumours, report says"

Source: CTV.CA

Published: 29 May 2022

Category: Other

Rating: (½ star)

what they said (Hover the mouse cursor over underlined words for more info)

A new report suggests that cancer patients should not take antioxidants because they appear to protect cancer tumours against chemotherapy and radiation.

A team of North American researchers analyzed data from clinical trials investigating the effects of antioxidant supplements in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation.

They found that antioxidants seem to protect both healthy cells and cancer cells from the damage caused by the two treatments....

The original article can be found at: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080529/antioxidants_tumours_080529/20080529?hub=Health&s_name=

how did it rate? (more information)

Criteria	Rating
Total Score	1 of 10
Availability of Treatment	Not Satisfactory (?)
Novelty of Treatment	Not Satisfactory (?)
Disease Mongering	Satisfactory (?)
Treatment Options	Not Satisfactory (?)
Costs of Treatment	Not Satisfactory (?)
Evidence	Not Satisfactory (?)
Quantification of Benefits of Treatment	Not Satisfactory (?)
Harms of Treatment	Not Satisfactory (?)
Sources of Information	Not Satisfactory (?)
Relies on Press Release	Not Applicable
Quantification of harms of treatment	Not Satisfactory (?)

what we said (Hover the mouse cursor over underlined words for more info)

This article may be unnecessarily alarming, as no evidence is provided to support the health claim it makes. There are large gaps in this report as the article does not mention treatment cost or availability and does not quantify the harms or benefits of using or avoiding antioxidant supplements. In addition, little is said about potential conflicts of interest and sources of information used to write this report.

Even though there are large gaps in the reporting of this study, readers (and patients) may still be swayed (perhaps without reason) to alter their diets and avoid antioxidants. If readers don't know what antioxidants are, they will likely worry about what foods they should avoid while receiving chemotherapy or radiation treatment. On the other hand, if readers are familiar with what antioxidants are, they will likely be concerned about the difficulty in avoiding these products during cancer treatment.

public forum

(09 Jul 2022) Richard Reiffer from RJR Consulting writes,

"This sounds more like another Pharma and College of Physician attack to protect their assets and their jobs because more people are seeking out these forms of therapy and having incredible successes and recoveries due to them.

Another example of how media is benefiting from the large profits of the Pharma industry at the cost of the lives of Canadians"

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