Vitamins A, E, microelements and membrane lipid peroxidation in patients with neoplastic disease treated with calcium antagonists and antagonists of receptors H-2

We studied the serum levels of vitamins A, E, zinc and copper in two hundred and twenty-five subjects of both sexes. They were divided into two groups: 87 healthy subjects who served as controls and 138 patients with neoplastic disease. The patients were subdivided according to the absence (n = 79) or the presence of metastatic disease (n = 59). In 59 patients with cancer, who were in therapy with scavenger drugs of free radical such as calcium antagonists and the antagonists of receptors H-2, we also studied the possible effect of the same therapy on the serum levels of vitamins, on the concentrations of the microelements and on membrane lipid peroxidation. We found that membrane lipid peroxidation, evaluated from the time of in vitro formation in the blood of so-called "Heinz bodies," decreased in all patients treated with scavenger drugs. In these patients the permeability of the erythrocyte membrane was similar to the controls and the serum levels of the vitamins were equal to the levels in patients who did not receive these therapies. Zinc concentration increased while copper remained unchanged. We also studied the levels of vitamins in some organs. The results are discussed considering the role of free radicals. We underline the importance of vitamins A and E in the protection from membranous peroxidation and from free radicals and the need to consider cancer as a systemic morbid event, apart from the contingent actual location.