Ginger root

Although ginger is often recommended as a simple remedy for chemotherapy nausea, ginger capsules don’t seem to work any better than a sugar pill to improve the effects of standard nausea drugs.

In a randomized study, 162 patients received either ginger capsules or a placebo for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. Neither the patients or their doctors knew which they were getting.  All patients were already receiving an 5-HT₃ inhibitor such as Zofran® or Kytril®.  Some were also being treated with Emend® (aprepitant).

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Continuing Avastin® (bevacizumab) beyond the time when advanced colorectal cancer gets worse helps patients, according to new study reports.  Patients who continued to receive Avastin with a new chemotherapy regimen after their cancer first progressed lived almost 12 months longer than patients who got more chemo but stopped Avastin.  Both groups did better than those who had no further treatment at all.

BRiTE (Bevacizumab Regimens: Investigation of Treatment Effects and Safety) observed progress of three groups of patients when their cancer got worse after their first chemotherapy treatments.  All patients had Avastin as part of the first chemo, some continued it beyond that first cancer progression. Read the rest of this entry »

Oncologists often recommend that patients on chemotherapy avoid antioxidant supplements including vitamin C.  Now basic research shows that vitamin C reduces the activity of several different chemotherapy drugs, both in cancer cell lines and in experimental mice.

Vitamin C appears to protect the cell against death during chemotherapy by restoring its mitochondria.  Mitochondria power cells, converting nutrients to energy.  When mitochondria are damaged they force the cell to die — the goal of chemotherapy.  By revitalizing damaged mitochondria, the vitamin reduced the effectiveness of all the chemo drugs tested, by as much as 70 percent for some. Read the rest of this entry »

Patients who received chemotherapy after surgery to remove colorectal cancer that had spread to their liver or lungs had better long-term outcomes than those who only had surgery, according to an analysis that pooled two similar studies.

Two different clinical trials studied chemotherapy after surgical removal of liver or lung metastases due to colorectal cancer.  While neither trial was large enough to draw clear conclusions on its own, researchers combined information from both to decide if chemo made a difference for patients. Read the rest of this entry »

Were you diagnosed with colon cancer within the past three months?  Have you had your surgery and seen a medical oncologist?

Dr. Neil Love and Research to Practice want to talk to you about your chemotherapy decision-making. Read the rest of this entry »