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Archived Comments for: Mitochondrial oxidative stress drives tumor progression and metastasis: should we use antioxidants as a key component of cancer treatment and prevention?

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  1. Nice theory, but why omit the many negative results?

    Andrew Vickers, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

    15 August 2011

    Antioxidants in theory should help prevent and treat cancer, that much cannot reasonably be doubted. Indeed, the theory has been tested in several trials (see for example http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8901854
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19066370
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18505970)

    A brief overview of this literature might be that antioxidants certainly don't help prevent or treat cancer, and they may actually harm.

    Why was this literature omitted? Why was the only mention of clinical research an observational study with "positive" results?

    Competing interests

    None to declare

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