Do you remember about 3 years ago the headlines splashed all over the world suggesting that anti-oxidant vitamins can speed up the development of cancer? In this study it was suggested that cancer patients who took either vitamin A (beta-carotene) or E (alpha tocopherol) supplements were 40 per cent more likely to suffer a recurrence of their cancer than those who didn’t take any supplements
But the researchers who first published the study have now admitted that they got it wrong.
The researchers, led by Isabelle Bairati from the Quebec Research Centre, who published the 2005 study, have "re-analysed" their original data, and admitted the only people in the study who were seeing their cancer return were smokers who refused to kick the habit while they were receiving radiation therapy or chemotherapy.
There were many other aspects about this study that was misleading or incorrect but the mainstream media refused to print these corrections but rather continued to let their readers believe the misinformation they had printed.
Even now the researchers have admitted the flaws; still not a single newspaper has run with the story. Interesting, eh?
(Source: International Journal of Cancer, 2008; 122: 1679-83).