Base Pairs

6 - When Antioxidants are Pro-cancer

11.14.2016 - By Cold Spring Harbor LaboratoryPlay

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Fighting cancer is so difficult in part because the healthy cells we want to support often end up casualties in the crossfire of toxic treatments. This episode is about how we might overcome this obstacle even in some of the most difficult cases: patients with pancreatic cancer. Of all major cancers, pancreatic has the lowest survival rate, because patients are usually too sick to be helped by conventional therapies by the time they’re diagnosed. But recent research on antioxidant levels in the cells of pancreatic cancer patients is homing in on a new, safer avenue for treatment—and it’s not what you’d think based on the reputation antioxidants have gained in popular culture.

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