The role of antioxidants and pro-oxidants in colon cancer

Figure 1 Connections between known risk factors of colorectal cancer and oxidative stress. Smoking, dietary n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-6 PUFA) and heavy alcohol consumption contribute to in vivo oxidative stress with an accompanying overproduction of genotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) that give rise to mutations, cancer and also promote cancer phenotypes. Antioxidants such as gamma-tocopherol (gamma-T), tocotrienols (T3s) and aspirin reduce oxidative stress and ROS overproduction (up arrow).