Our knowledge about stimuli and sources of oxidative stress, and about its role as an important cofactor contributing to endothelial dysfunction, inflammation, atherosclerosis and glomerulosclerosis has substantially increased over the last years. However, even though partial prevention of CVD by antioxidant treatment in haemodialysis patients could be achieved, no clinical end‐point study using various antioxidant treatments was able to clearly show a beneficial effect on total mortality in non‐renal or renal patients. Thus, a major task for the coming years will be to design effective antioxidant protocols and to analyse them in clinical intervention studies with hard end‐points, including mortality, to prove whether the concept holds true.