Understanding the Health Benefit Given by Vitamin E (Research Paper Sample)

The purpose of this paper has been to examine the use of Vitamin E in preventing cancer and stopping the spread of cancer cells. The research that was reviewed showed that both gamma-tocopherol and tocotrienols have been effective at inducing apoptosis in cancer cells. The research involving the use of gamma-tocopherol was found to be effective at inducing apoptosis in colon cancer cells regardless of their genetic structures. Even more, gamma-tocopherol has been found to indicate the death receptor in mRNA. However, the research suggests that tocotrienols may be more effective at inducing apoptosis in cancer cells because of a greater accumulation of this type of vitamin E at the cellular level. Furthermore, research has shown that in human trials of the treatment of breast cancer, tocotrienols can be used along with Tamoxifen to successfully stop the proliferation of breast cancer cells even after patients develop Tamoxifen resistance. Unfortunately, most of the research that has been conducted using gamma-tocopherols and tocotrienols have been conducted in the laboratory. More research involving human trials is needed in order to determine if the results achieved in the laboratory can be recreated in humans. Even more, care must be taken to inform the public that simply taking large doses of vitamin E is not likely to result in the successful prevention of treatment of cancer. This is due to the fact that most vitamin E that is consumed in dietary form is alpha-tocopherol, which has been shown to be ineffective at inducing apoptosis, and may even cause cancer cell proliferation.