General Health News

Multivitamins Unlikely to Help Colon Cancer Patients

By: Nicole Service | Tuesday 14 September 2010 07:26 PDT

A new study by researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston shatters the belief that multivitamins may slow down colon cancer or even prolong a patient's life.  

Colon cancer, also known as colorectal cancer, is cancer of the large intestine, and combined with rectal cancer -- the lowest part of the large intestine -- it is the third most diagnosed cancer in both men and women in the U.S.

Researchers followed more than 1,000 individuals who had recently undergone surgery for advanced stage-2 colon cancer, and found that half of the patients used multivitamins during and six months after completing chemotherapy.

The study, which was funded by Pfizer -- makers of a popular brand of multivitamins, as well as a colon cancer therapy -- found that there was no significant improvement in survival among those taking multivitamins compared to nonusers, nor did the supplements help to extend the time of the disease's recurrence.

The results were published in the Journal of Oncology and add to growing evidence about the effectiveness of multivitamins, especially when it comes to cancer survival.

In her own Women's Health Initiative study, Marian L. Neuhouser, of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, found no benefit of multivitamins in cancer prevention.

Another study in Sweden found that rather than help, Swedish women who took multivitamins were at a greater risk for breast cancer. However, the reason why is still under investigation. It could be a matter of their diet and nutrition.
 
As more people turn to using supplements for nutrition, the body of research questioning their benefits grows. A multivitamin overdose can also cause major medical problems. For example, too much vitamin B-6 can cause neurological damage.

At the same time there are studies suggesting that individual supplements such as vitamin D, might have some benefits. Studies in vitamin D hinted at a protective effect, but it would have to be at a much higher dose than those found in the standard multivitamin.