The role of antioxidants and pro-oxidants in colon cancer

Figure 2 Conceptual framework for the selective action of chemotherapeutic agents that induce oxidative stress. Many cancer cells show a high level of intrinsic oxidative stress (“blue” component of total oxidative stress) compared to normal cells. Chemotherapeutic agents often act by inducing an additional level of oxidative stress (“red” component of total oxidative stress) that is sufficient to reach an apoptotic threshold (blue line) in a typical cancer cell but not a normal cell.