Pancreatic cancerWIKIMEDIA COMMONS, HELLERHOFF
Unstable molecules called reactive oxygen species (ROS) have long been thought to promote cancer by causing DNA damage and activating oncogenes, but new data suggests they may actually suppress tumor growth, according to a paper published this week in Nature.
The finding suggests that antioxidants, which clear ROS from a cell and are used as a treatment for cancer, may be doing more harm than good—causing complications instead of preventing disease.
“This is an outstanding and really interesting study that further suggests a duplicitous role for ROS in tumorigenesis,” Zachary Schafer, a cancer biologist at the University of Notre Dame, in an email. In 2009, Schafer demonstrated that eliminating ROS helps tumor cells survive outside their extracellular matrix. Similarly, the new data add to a ...
