Dietary supplements hasten spread of skin cancer: research

Rather than prevent it, antioxidants hasten the spread of one of the deadliest forms of skin cancer, according to a study by Swedish researchers published on Wednesday.

Although widely marketed as means of preventing cancer, antioxidants in fact double the rate of metastasis in malignant melanoma, researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy in Gothenburg said.

"Our current research combined with information from large clinical trials with antioxidants suggests that people who have been recently diagnosed with cancer should avoid such supplements," Martin Bergo, a professor at Sahlgrenska Cancer Center, said in a statement.

Last year researchers at the academy found that antioxidants aggravate lung cancer, prompting a follow-up study on one of the most perilous forms of skin cancer.

The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, found that antioxidants boosted the ability of malignant melanoma to spread to other parts of the body.

"Given well-established evidence that free radicals can cause cancer, the research community had simply assumed that antioxidants, which destroy them, provide protection against the disease," the statement read.

The researchers said they studied cases of malignant melanoma because it is one of the forms of cancer spreading quickly across the developed world.

They also issued a warning against the effect of certain moisturizing lotions.

"Skin and suntan lotions sometimes contain beta carotene or vitamin E, both of which could potentially affect malignant melanoma cells in the same way as antioxidants in nutritional supplements," Bergo said. Endit