Safety of Antioxidants During GYN Cancer Care

It is known that cancer patients use antioxidants at greater rates than their healthy peers and these patients generally do not tell their physicians. This use has not been adequately evaluated. This pilot trial is a Phase II study designed to assess safety of high-dose antioxidants in gynecologic malignancies. Secondarily, we will evaluate efficacy of antioxidant use. These goals will be accomplished by monitoring adverse events by clinical evaluation, metabolic functions such as but not limited to tumor markers, blood counts, hepatic, and renal enzymes, and tumor response rates secondarily. The study will be conducted at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Oversight partnership is established with the FDA-CDER, Kansas Masonic Cancer Research Institute, and the University of Kansas Medical Center - IRB. The study is an open label prospective investigational study in 50 gynecologic cancer patients with a Primary Hypothesis: To assess safety of adding high-dose antioxidants to chemotherapy in the treatment of gynecologic malignancies (uterine, cervical, or epithelial ovarian). Qualitative and quantitative toxicities will be assessed by monitoring clinical status by National Cancer Institute common toxicity criteria version 3.0, quality of life measures (FACT-G), and evaluating metabolic functions including but not limited to hepatic and renal function. Secondary Hypothesis: To assess efficacy by tumor response rates in patients with gynecologic malignancies treated with antioxidants to include intravenous and oral ascorbic acid, intravenous glutathione, oral mixed carotenoids, mixed tocopherols, and vitamin A. Secondary endpoints will be time to progression and survival. Patients with newly diagnosed or recurrent gynecologic cancer will be invited to participate and these subjects will be limited to those who present with cervical, uterine, or ovarian of epithelial origin. Fifty patients will be enrolled. The study subjects will be treated with antioxidants added to their usual oncologic care for 12 months. This population was chosen because of anecdotal and case report evidence for benefit when high-dose antioxidants are added to their care.