RADICAL IDEAS: The Enduring Promise of Antioxidant Therapy and Redox Balance in Cancer
Oxygen, essential for life, can be toxic. Oxygen-centered free radicals are routinely synthesized and recycled as a normal part of cellular metabolism. Oxidative stress—when these highly reactive molecules tax a cell’s antioxidant systems—is a fundamental featureof many cancers. Evolutionary theory states that, as oxygen became more abundant on primordial Earth, respiring single-celled organisms developed antioxidant systems to defend their DNA against free radicals formed from oxygen.
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