Cancer chemotherapy reduces plasma total antioxidant capacity in children with malignancies

The sum of endogenous and food-derived antioxidants provides an estimate of the total antioxidant capacity (TAC) of the extracellular fluids, while corrected TAC (cTAC) is an estimation of the exogenously provided antioxidants. Similar values for TAC and cTAC were observed between cancer free children and children with malignancy at diagnosis. Antineoplastic treatment induced a significant decrease of TAC and cTAC during chemotherapy. Additionally to the dietary factors, this might be attributed to the antineoplastic drugs as shown by the significant increase of ROS after administration of chemotherapeutic agents both in vitro and in vivo. According to our preliminary results TAC and cTAC returned to normal after the end of therapy.