Bulletin du Cancer
MENUEffects of treatments on serum vitamin E levels in lung cancer Volume 91, issue 10, Octobre 2004
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- Key words: serum vitamin E, lung cancer, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, surgery
- Page(s) : 779-84
- Published in: 2004
Previous evidence suggests that malignant tumours cause an decrease in the serum vitamin E level. We followed the serum alpha tocophérol in 55 lung cancer patients. The objective of the study was to evaluate the effects of treatments of lung cancer on serum vitamin E evolution. The vitamin E of patients symptomatically treated decreases from the first month and this decrease is significant (p < 0.001) in patients affected by SCLC and in those with NSCLC classified stage III and IV. The reduction of the vitamin E is also noted in the patients treated with chemotherapy (p < 0.001). Vitamin E levels improve gradually to reach standard values in the patients who followed a curative radiotherapy or benefited from the surgical ablation of the tumour. At 4 months after the surgical removal of the tumour, there was an increase in serum vitamin E concentrations and reached the normal values. This data indicates that surgical removal of lung cancer increases serum vitamin E concentrations compared to the baseline values possibly reflecting the relief of oxidative stress caused by malignant tumours.