Study: Colon Cancer Patients Have Lower Level of Antioxidant Vitamins

Polish researchers report that blood samples from patients with colon cancer contained significantly lower levels of antioxidant vitamins and uric acid than those taken from healthy patients.

The researchers from the Ludwik Rydygier Medical University in Bydgoszcz conducted the study in an effort to further examine the link suggested by earlier studies between oxidative stress and the proliferation of colon cancer cells.

Blood samples were taken from 55 healthy persons and from 43 with colon cancer.

"The concentrations of the vitamins and uric acid were significantly lower in colon cancer patients than in control group," the researchers reported in the International Journal of Cancer..

"Therefore, the decreased concentration of antioxidant vitamins together with lower amount of uric acid may be responsible for the formation of pro-oxidative environment in blood of colorectal carcinoma patients," they concluded.

Other Sources: International Journal of Cancer