Vitamin E Helps Cancer Side Effects

Patients with head and neck cancers often experience a negative side effect of treatment known as oral mucositis. Now, researchers presenting at this week's conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Orlando, Fla., say vitamin E may offer relief.

Oral mucositis, also called stomatitis, is a common, debilitating complication of cancer chemotherapy and radiotherapy, occurring in about 40 percent of patients. It can result as a side effect of chemotherapy or radiotherapy. It is inflammation of the mucosa of the mouth and ranges from redness to severe ulceration. It can greatly impair patients' quality of life as well as compromise tumor growth. Researchers say there is no effective treatment for oral mucositis that is widely used by doctors as a standard treatment for the condition. Researchers from Brazil tested the effect of vitamin E on more than 50 patients with oral mucositis as a result of radiotherapy and found promising results.

Paulo F. Ferreira, M.D., from Porto Alegre, Brazil, said in his presentation, "Vitamin E is the most important antioxidant in the human body. Its role is to rid the body of free radicals." In his study, he and colleagues administered 400 mg of vitamin E twice a day to one group of patients while the remaining patients received 500 mg of a placebo (primrose oil). Dr. Ferreira says, "This is the first trial conducted to examine vitamin E as a single protective agent in patients with head and neck cancer treated with radiotherapy." Patients were given the vitamin or the placebo 5 minutes before radiation and again 12 hours later. Researchers evaluated patients weekly, and patients were given a questionnaire to report on pain and other symptoms associated with the disease.

In the placebo group, researchers say there was a 33.5 percent frequency of severe oral mucositis events while there was only a 21.6 percent frequency in the vitamin E group. They found pain was significantly worse in the placebo group. Patients receiving vitamin E also reported a better quality of life than placebo patients. Researchers conclude, "Vitamin E decreased the incidence of symptomatic buccal radioinduced mucositis in head and neck cancer patients."

SOURCE: Reported by Ivanhoe Health Correspondent Stacie Overton at the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Orlando, Fla., May 18-21, 2002