Nowadays, we all have comprehensive data at our fingertips that we can turn to when our oncology nurse or some random author suggests that we should stop all the antioxidants during chemotherapy or radiation treatment. We need to look at each one carefully and make the best decision for us at the time. There is no one size fits all when it comes to chemotherapy or when it comes to evaluating the use of antioxidants.

Here are some study support tips and links to get you started.

Firstly, take the time to explore this 2018 pubmed review article. 
Antioxidants as precision weapons in war against cancer chemotherapy induced toxicity - Exploring the armoury of obscurity. 

The article contains tables  that summarise the effect of various antioxidants when combined with specific chemotherapeutic agents.
Search for your particular chemotherapy (using your internet browser's search function e.g CTRL+F or Apple+F ) and see if this leads you to make more informed choices.

You may be surprised to learn that  "some antioxidants have superior potential of alleviating chemotherapeutic induced toxicity and specific antioxidant supplementation during chemotherapy promises higher therapeutic efficiency and increased survival times in patients."

The 2018 review encompasses a total of 174 peer-reviewed original articles from 1967 till date comprising 93 clinical trials with a cumulative number of 18,208 patients, 56 animal studies and 35 in vitro studies. And this  comprehensive data suggests that antioxidant has superior potential of ameliorating chemotherapeutic induced toxicity."

When you have the article open search not only for the drug name but the names of the anti-oxidants you are interested in learning more about, and even search for the cancer type you were diagnosed with.

Look for the little reference numbers which lead you to the reference list at the end of the article and click on the ones you want to look at next and possibly discuss with your integrative practitioner.

be sure to read the notes in the column titled  "Higher therapeutic response rate" and then see if you can ascertain dose. Often times when they write Vitamin C they are referring to IV- Vitamin C which is not an antioxidant at all. 

Just say I was to go on chemotherapy and did what I was told and simply stopped taking my daily Liposomal Apigenin which is described over and over again everywhere I search online as a potent antioxidant. I would forfeit an important opportunity to kill the cancer stem cells that chemotherapy can not kill. Apigenin targets cancer stem cells via targeting wnt, NF-kB, JAK-STAT, PI3K/Akt/ mTOR or TGF/SMAD pathways.

And what about all the research focusing on Apigenin supporting various chemotherapies and radiation; do I simply decide that I will ignore it because my doctor isn't a researcher and hasn't seen stage 3 clinical trial results?

Our Apigenin research specific blog article provides a simple table with links to the research for these cancer stem cell signalling pathways and points to the research in which Apigenin has been shown to enhance several chemotherapy outcomes and help us avoid chemotherapy and radiotherapy resistance. I wrote it for myself and as a resource for everyone else with cancer that is left to think for themselves.

For anyone with breast cancer asking this question. This article written by a master herbalist Donnie Yance, who working closely with cancer patients in treatment and training clinicians for well over a decade, is a piece worth reading on this topic.

A Clinician’s Perspective on the Use of ‘Antioxidant’ Dietary Supplements During Chemotherapy: Exploring the ‘Body of Evidence’ in Favor of Supporting the Health of Breast Cancer Patients