ABSTRACT
In the year 2000, more than 1.2 million new cases of cancer were detected, and almost 600,000 Americans died from the disease—almost evenly split between men and women. For women, breast cancer is the obvious main concern (175,000 women deal with this disease each year), while for men, prostate cancer is the second most prevalent form (180,000 cases and 37,000 deaths last year) following lung cancer. Because a recent study in the journal Cancer (2000:88:615-19) suggested that as many as one-third of cancer patients supplement their conventional medical treatment with alternative therapies such as dietary supplements, it is important for both physicians and patients to understand how dietary supplements may help or hinder conventional oncology treatments.
