ReviewEuropean journal of nutrition2012
Antioxidant vitamins and mineral supplementation, life span expansion and cancer incidence: a critical commentary.
Review in European journal of nutrition, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 72 citations in OpenAlex.
- Coffee consumption and the risk of lung cancer: an updated meta-analysis of epidemiological studies.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2016Pooled it
- Associations of the composite dietary antioxidant index with all-cause mortality among individuals with psoriasis: a population-based study.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- The impact of diet and gut microbiota on development, treatment, and prognosis in prostate cancer.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Review
- Meal timing of dietary total antioxidant capacity and its association with all-cause, CVD and cancer mortality: the US national health and nutrition examination survey, 1999-2018.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2023Article
- Article
- Novel Insights into the Role of the Antioxidants in Prostate Pathology.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Terpenoids as Potential Geroprotectors.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Review
- Roles of Reactive Oxygen Species in Biological Behaviors of Prostate Cancer.BioMed research international · 2020Review
- Mitochondrial thioredoxin reductase 2 is elevated in long-lived primate as well as rodent species and extends fly mean lifespan.Aging cell · 2017Article
- Protective effect ofPeerJ · 2017Article
- Article
- Folic acid supplementation at lower doses increases oxidative stress resistance and longevity in Caenorhabditis elegans.Age (Dordrecht, Netherlands) · 2015Article
- Serum Biomarkers of (Anti)Oxidant Status for Epidemiological Studies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2015Review
- Article
- Structural re-arrangement and peroxidase activation of cytochrome c by anionic analogues of vitamin E, tocopherol succinate and tocopherol phosphate.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2014Article
- Natural forms of vitamin E: metabolism, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities and their role in disease prevention and therapy.Free radical biology & medicine · 2014Review
- PMC, a potent hydrophilic α-tocopherol derivative, inhibits NF-κB activation via PP2A but not IκBα-dependent signals in vascular smooth muscle cells.Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2014Article
- Induction of apoptosis by a hexane extract of aged black garlic in the human leukemic U937 cells.Nutrition research and practice · 2014Article
- Sepsis-induced Cardiac Mitochondrial Damage and Potential Therapeutic Interventions in the Elderly.Aging and disease · 2014Review
- Aging-modulating treatments: from reductionism to a system-oriented perspective.Frontiers in genetics · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeExperimental evidence indicates a strong connection between oxidative damage, cancer, and aging. Epidemiological observations suggest that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables is associated with lower incidence of some cancers and longer life expectancy; since fruits and vegetables contain natural antioxidants, a considerable effort has been dedicated to understanding their effects in experimental studies and in human trials.
resultsA: Effects of antioxidant-containing food and supplements on oxidation damage in humans. Intervention trials employing a variety of biomarkers have shown either a slight decrease in oxidation damage or no effect. B: Effects of selected antioxidants on mortality and cancer incidence. β-carotene and α-tocopherol, alone or in combination, increase cardiovascular and all-cause mortality or have no effect. In some studies, β-carotene and retinyl palmitate significantly increase the progression of lung cancer and aggressive prostate cancer. Protection against cardiovascular mortality or no effect of vitamin E has been reported, with an increase of all-cause mortality at dosages greater than 150 IU/day. Selenium showed beneficial effects on gastrointestinal cancer and reduced the risk of lung cancer in populations with lower selenium status. For multivitamin and mineral supplementation, no significant reduction of mortality or cancer incidence was observed, but some reports indicate a possible preventive effect in cervical cancer.
conclusionsThe majority of supplementation studies indicate no variation of general mortality and of cancer incidence or a detrimental effect on both. Antioxidant supplements so far tested seem to offer no improvement over a well-balanced diet, possibly because of the choice of the substances tested or of an excessive dosage. However, new natural or synthetic compounds effective in vitro and in experimental studies might still be worth investigating in human trials.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.