Antioxidant Vitamins Fail to Prevent Polyps

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Antioxidant vitamins have received a lot of attention for their putative role as anticancer agents. Last spring, however, the antioxidant story became complicated when researchers reported that such vitamins did not protect men who smoked from getting lung cancer. This week, another scientific team weighs in on the question of whether antioxidant vitamins shield against colorectal cancer.

Epidemiologist E. Robert Greenberg of Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, N.H., and his colleagues report that certain antioxidant vitamins offer no defense against developing a wartlike growth called a polyp in the large intestine or rectum. This type of polyp is a precursor of invasive …