Antioxidant vitamins and cancer risk: is oxidative damage to DNA a relevant biomarker?

Steffen Loft, Peter Møller, Marcus S Cooke, Rafal Rozalski, Ryszard Olinski

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

68 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Oxidative damage to DNA is regarded as an important step in carcinogenesis. These lesions may arise as a consequence of exposure to xenobiotics, but are also generated as a consequence of endogenous generation of oxidizing compounds. Measurements of oxidative damage to guanines, such as 8-oxo-7, 8-dihydroguanine (8-oxodG) are increasingly being regarded as reliable biomarkers of oxidative stress and they may have a predictive value of cancer risk, although this needs to be established independently in several cohort studies. A survey of intervention studies of the ingestion of antioxidant-containing foods or tablets of antioxidants indicate that about one-third of the studies reported a protective effect in terms of lower levels of oxidative damage to DNA in white blood cells or decreased urinary excretion of 8-oxodG. Although firm conclusions cannot be reached, there appears to be links between ingestion of antioxidants, oxidative damage to DNA, and risk of cancer.
Original languageEnglish
JournalEuropean Journal of Nutrition
Volume47 Suppl 2
Pages (from-to)19-28
Number of pages9
ISSN1436-6207
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2008

Cite this