No anti oxidents during radiation?

I read that somewhere on the net...
and immediately stopped taking all my vitamns (B,C,D, E, and Fish Oil).

Then when talking to the radiology nurse she explained why....Antioxidents help build and strengthen DNA. The body's DNA is "smart", and can repair itself pretty darn good...antioxidents help the body rebuild DNA. Cancer cells are dumb, once radiation hits their DNA, they have an awful time trying to repair themselves, and therefore die off. That taking antioxidents during rads, is giving the cancer cells little cheat sheets in repairing themselves....so therefore, we don't help them out by taking antioxidents.

Once rads are over, go back to the antioxidents, to help your body get thru the chemo...

I thought that was a great "laymans" version for why we stay away from our vitamins .

I'm not paying a whole lot of attention to what I'm eating, just making sure I do..plus supplementing with Ensure and Instant breakfast etc. Waffles for breakfast, lots of butter, lots of syrup (never allowed myself this little pleasure in my healthier days ) I'm eating shepherds pie, vegitable soup, etc. Cooked, veggies lose a lot of the potency...I figure one month of just eating, and not worrying about what is good for weight...I wouldn't get to nervous about cooked veggies...

p

vitamin C
Hi Sam999, my Onc told me not to take high doses of Vitamin C or any anti-oxidents
As that will interfear with the radiation treatment,
Radiation and chemo put free radical into the body to kill the cancer, tumor etc..
Super anti-oxidents kill free radicals so it would defeat the object of trying to
Cure the cancer. Once treatment is over and you've gone through the "cooking period"
Then it is ok to take, but still consult your onc to be sure.
And while I'm on the subject I have said before that I take alternative products, and I
Have heard so many times on this board about people's immune system being run down,
sluggish, depleated well I don't want to get blacklisted or thrown of the board for solisitation
but if Anyone would like to know about what product I take please contact me through the
CSN email or my personal email on my profile page for more info.
I was scc T20N0M a 3.7cm tumor of the tonsil, dx Nov and in Mar, ct scan done before
Treatment and tumor was still 3.7cm no significent change in size.

Please feel free to contact me and I will answer all questions.

God bless
Tonsil Dad,

Dad.

Sam999 said:

Phrannie, your explaination
Phrannie, your explaination was reallly nice:)

Do you take any vitamins at all or no?

Tonsil dad, i am big fan of natural stuff and have sent you pm to get more details on your exp.

Thanks,
Sam

No Sam....I quit taking everything....
I only took antioxidents before, so quit everything until treatment (or at least radiation) is done.

p

Amifostine
This is also an antioxidant but often prescribed for people going through chemotherapy.

Sam999 said:

I thought amifostine is a
I thought amifostine is a medicine given to save salivery glands. Also it is not approved by all centers. I am taking my treatmeng at memorial sloan ketttering and they do not offer this. I do not why. I would do anything to save my salivery glands.

It is prescribed for that
It is prescribed for that purpose but it is also an antioxidant. So does it make a difference in the effectiveness of RT? Who knows, just another crap shoot.

Skiffin16 said:

Amifostine
My chemo MD prescribed Amifostine for me during concurrent chemo/rads to help minimalize the thick phlegm that some get during this time, with the added possibility that it might help recovery of salivary glands.

For me, I never had the phlegm issues, and now three years post treatment I have around 95% of my saliva back, and 100% of taste.

Amifostine is a pharmacological antioxidant used as a cytoprotectant in cancer chemotherapy and radiotherapy. It is thought to protect normal tissues relative to tumor tissue against oxidative damage inflicted by cancer therapies by becoming concentrated at higher levels in normal tissues. The degree to which amifostine nevertheless accumulates in tumors and protects them against cancer therapies has been debated. Guidelines have been published that direct its use in chemotherapy and radiation, taking into consideration the concerns of tumor protection. In this article, clinical studies of amifostine appearing since the publication of the most recent set of guidelines are reviewed. Randomized and nonrandomized trials of regimens involving chemo-therapeutic agents (chemotherapy, chemoradiation, conditioning regimens for bone marrow transplant) are discussed. Nineteen studies showed positive effects for amifostine reducing the level of side effects of these regimens, while 9 showed no effect and 1 had a questionable result. Clinically relevant levels of amifostine toxicity were observed in several studies, but subcutaneous administration may reduce such toxicity. Amifostine showed protection against mucositis, esophagitis, neuropathy, and other side effects, although protection against cisplatin-induced ototoxicity was not observed. No evidence of tumor protection was observed. Amifostine may enable populations unable to tolerate conventional cancer therapy to receive treatment of their cancers, even if some degree of tumor protection is eventually discovered. The authors discuss the implications of this research for patient populations seen in integrative cancer care centers and for research on phytochemical antioxidants such as vitamins and carotenoids. ,

JG

I never had to take the
I never had to take the stuff but studies say it does help. I never had much of a saliva issue, even at 6 months post I never have to take anything at night for dry mouth. However there are some foods that are more problematic like white chicken which to me is very dry without some type of sauce. Still not 100% on the taste, hopefully that will improve but if not I can live with it all things considered.

John

Sam999 said:

I wish they do more study on
I wish they do more study on drugs like this that are aleady approved and available. For all i know, i could find out 5 years later that taking this medicine would have really helped

Who Knows
It seems that some on here have been just as successful without it....

JG

phrannie51 said:

I hope amifostine is all it's cracked up to be....
I've been doing the deed for almost 4 weeks now.......and I call it a "deed" because it isn't the most pleasant part of my day. I'm hanging in there, but I can tell you that the smell of everything surrounding the shot make me gag...

p

I'm An Advocate...
I do feel that it helped me...if nothing else with the phlegm issues alone that I read about.

I use to hate having the port flushed, I could taste alcohol every time. Not sure if the taste was in my mind from them cleaning it, or something they used to flush it with.

But as soon as they started injecting the solution, I could taste it.

JG