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Fats

Questions and related abstracts

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Fats in Risk Factors

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Background: wikipedia.org 

There are many kinds of dietary fats.  A consensus is forming about which fats are best to use or avoid for general good health, which is briefly summarized here:

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Fish oil

Natural sources: cold water fish, such as salmon and herring

Recommended resource:
The Natural Pharmacist

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Fish oil is rich in omega-3 oils.  It contains EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid). 

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Open Clinical trial: Phase I/II Study of Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Advanced Cancer Patients with Cachexia -NCI

CAUTION: Fish oil consumption may increase the risk of bleeding in susceptible individuals. While beneficial in many respects, using fish oil might compromise some immune-based therapies.  See Alerts for details.

See Fish oil & Lymphoma - abstracts
Chemo-protective? | Stabilizing? | Treatment Enhancing?

Garlic
garlic powder

Recommended resource:
The Natural Pharmacist

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Garlic (Allium sativum) 

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 Gerson Therapy?

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Background: wikipedia.org 

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"The Gerson therapy uses a special diet, supplements and also coffee enemas to detoxify and stimulate the body’s metabolism. Proponents of the Gerson therapy have made claims that it is an effective treatment for cancer and other illnesses, through balancing the levels of potassium and sodium in the body, removal of toxins and regeneration of liver function and also improving overall nutritional status. 

No substantive evidence exists in the scientific literature to support the view that the Gerson therapy is an effective alternative therapy for cancer. However, some evidence does exist which suggests that elements of the therapy (coffee enemas in particular) are potentially dangerous if used excessively. In addition to this the excessive demands of time, money and other resources on the patient undergoing the therapy may be extreme." ¹ http://www.cam-cancer.org/mod_product/uploads/gerson.pdf

1. Gerson Therapy - Report by Concerted Action for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Assessment in the Cancer Field (CAM-Cancer) Project funded under the European Commission 5th Framework Program “Quality of Life”. - http://www.cam-cancer.org/mod_product/uploads/gerson.pdf 

2. ACS report on - caonline.amcancersoc.org  

3. Alternative nutritional cancer therapies.
   Int J Cancer Suppl. 1998;11:69-72. Review. PMID: 9876483 | Related articles

4. BC Cancer Agency - GersonTherapy.htm 

  Genistein

Recommended resource:
The Natural Pharmacist

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Background: wikipedia.org 

TOPIC SEARCH: PubMed 
 

Glutamine

Natural sources: fish, meat, beans, and dairy

Recommended resource:
The Natural Pharmacist

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Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid (protein building block) in the body and is involved in more metabolic processes than any other amino acid.

Background: wikipedia.org  

TOPIC SEARCH: PubMed 

CAUTION: See Alerts

Related Abstracts and text:

Ginger

Recommended resource:
The Natural Pharmacist

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Ginger is good for nausea and calming the intestinal tract. It may also inhibit the cox-2 enzyme, which promotes inflammation.

TOPIC SEARCH: PubMed 

Green tea extract

(EGCG)

Recommended resource:
The Natural Pharmacist

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Green tea has components, such as EGCG, that may fight cancer.  

TOPIC SEARCH: PubMed 

CAUTIONS: Green tea might contain high levels of fluoride - bruha.com  and high doses may cause liver toxicity  pubs.acs.org  pdf

Herbs

Recommended resource:
The Natural Pharmacist

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Links to guidance about herbs from reputable sources will be posted here.

TOPIC SEARCH: PubMed 

Hoxsey Therapy?

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Background copied from wikipedia.org: 

"Hoxsey herbal treatment includes a paste of antimony, zinc and bloodroot, arsenic, sulfur, and talc as external treatments, and a liquid mixture of licorice, red clover, burdock root, Stillingia root, barberry, Cascara, prickly ash bark, buckthorn bark, and potassium iodide for internal consumption.^[4]

In addition to the herbs, the Hoxsey treatment now also includes antiseptic douches and washes, laxative tablets, and nutritional supplements. A mixture of procaine hydrochloride and vitamins, along with liver and cactus, is prescribed.

During treatment, patients are asked to avoid consumption of tomatoes, vinegar, pork, alcohol, salt, sugar, and white flour products.

The Hoxsey treatment is not supported by the American Cancer Society or National Cancer Institute, as neither have found objective evidence that the treatment provides any tangible benefit to cancer victims. A controlled experiment using lab mice found no difference in tumor growth between untreated mice and those given the Hoxsey tonic.^[7] The FDA investigated 400 people claiming to have been cured by the Hoxsey method and found no indication that any had been cured by the mixture.^[2]"

Homeopathy?

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Commentary:  It's difficult to imagine how nano-doses of this or that compound can have a biological effect. Probably belief (placebo effect) is what is at work in homeopathy and it seems that belief can be helpful to  reduce symptoms, such as pain, and anxiety. But I suspect that belief and homeopathy is not going to act on underlying disease. 

TOPIC SEARCH: PubMed 

Hyperthermia / Hot baths with chemo?

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Commentary on risks of taking hot baths close to administration of chemo:

In addition to the known risk of hand/foot syndrome, the doses of chemotherapy agents are carefully calculated to achieve blood levels within the therapeutic window (to be effective with acceptable toxicity).  It may be that a hot bath will raise the temperature of blood in your skin and extremities, which could increase drug accumulations in those areas and reduce blood flow to other areas.  

That is, the practice of taking hot baths close to the administration of chemotherapy might not be safe to do, or beneficial.

Hyperbaric Therapy?

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TOPIC SEARCH Diet and Immunity: PubMed | Scholar 

Immune support

Boosting immunity with supplements to fight lymphomas?

Th1/Th2

Avoid Immune stimulation?

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TOPIC SEARCH Diet and Immunity: PubMed 

It is worth noting that the immune system is very complex. Understanding of how the immune system interacts with lymphoma cells is only now beginning to unfold.¹  

Thinking of immunity as a police force can be a useful way of thinking about how it works, but the immune system only acts upon recognition of non-self, i.e., something is foreign to it. Therefore, non-specific boosting of immunity that does not help the immune system to recognize tumor proteins (antigens) as being abnormal and not belonging is unlikely to be effective as a treatment strategy. 

The immune system can build armies of specialized forces when a foreign element is recognized as such: as an antigen. Activating the expansion of antibody-creating cells (B-cells) and specialized cells (T-cells) that can kill infected or abnormal cells. These activations are antigen-specific, not nutrient-based. 

The triggers of activation can be remembered or learned, such as a virus with a unique sequence of amino acids, or a protein expressed abnormally on a cell. There is cross-talk between the two arms of immunity, and also many internal controls. Regulatory T-cells, for example, that inhibit immune activation as a way to protect against autoimmunity. 

Thus, we might ask, “What part of the immune system (if any) are we boosting with herbs or vitamins? 
Like a police force, the immune system can subdue a criminal, but it needs to "know" its identity first. Once subdued, the armies are programmed to turn off the attack and self-destruct. Memory cells may remain so that a new insult can be dealt with more quickly and efficiently a second time.. 

One way of looking at a lymphoma is that it is an immune cell that has a flawed program, one that is not capable of turning off the attack on an antigen. Instead, it is misdirected by mutations for continued survival and expansion. 

It may be that normal cells surrounding and infiltrating the tumor are aiding and abetting the wrong cause, contributing to sustained growth and activation of these cells--the malignant behavior. So what triggers and boosts immunity is the detection of foreign antigens. An insect bite that leaves a non-self protein beneath the skin is an example.

As noted, activating immunity without providing information about what it should attack is not likely to help fight a lymphoma. Strategies that boost immunity by introducing antigen-like substances (pokeweed, etc.) are more likely to just rev up the system, like sirens and whistles without a plan. This course of action is unproductive and perhaps may contribute to immune depletion in the long run. 

Lymphomas may also depress immunity. The malignant cells may secrete factors that activate regulatory T-cells, whose job it is to suppress the immune response. Or, lymphoma cells crowding out normal cells in the bone marrow may inhibit the creation of new infection-fighting white blood cells (WBC). In this case, clearly, treatment that ablates (kills) tumors in the marrow may best address the underlying problem. 

Perhaps diet and supplements can influence immunity, but only modestly. This can occur in two ways: directly, if the body considers the supplement to be an antigen (foreign body), and indirectly, as building blocks (nutrients) for formation of new blood cells. A healthful diet and exercise will take care of the latter; the former (mushrooms, pokeweed, etc.) should probably be avoided because it may distract immunity from addressing the lymphoma (if it is) as described above, or potentially stimulate the lymphoma to grow. 

It should be noted that Beta glucans (from mushrooms) may improve the immune complement function, a process in which immune cells kill mab-coated cells. Testing is being done to see if it enhances response to Rituxan.

By far the most potent immune boosters are the new biologics. These are growth factors that actively induce certain types of blood cells to grow and mature. Leukine, Procrit, Neupogen are the brand names for these colony-stimulating factors. They also go by G-CSF or GM-CSF. 

CSF stands for “colony stimulating factors.” GM stands for granulocyte and macrophage respectively, which are the cells stimulated. For example, G-CSF is sometimes give to reduce risk of Infection between rounds of chemotherapy. Leukine is being tested in a controlled study to see if it provides benefit as an adjuvant with Rituxan to treat follicular NHL.   Leukine is also administered at injection sites for therapeutic vaccines. 

Note that despite the proven potency of biologic agents, they are not administered as single agents to treat lymphomas but only to keep treatment on schedule (rebuild WBC after chemo), or given with immune therapies to potentially enhance or complement treatment effects (with vaccines or rituxan).

One exciting direction in research is the use of immune modulating compounds. Agents like lenalidomide (Revlimid) may profoundly change the *profile* of immunity in ways that lead to tumor regressions. Recently, this agent was rapidly approved by the FDA for treating myeloma (a blood cancer). It is being tested for follicular NHL as well as a single agent and also as a potential adjuvant (booster) of Rituxan.

[1] "There is considerable clinical evidence that immune responses are important in follicular lymphoma. In some cases, the lymphoma regresses spontaneously,29 an observation that has also been made in melanoma and renal-cell carcinoma and that may indicate an effective antitumor immune response. The response of follicular lymphomas to idiotype vaccines also highlights the potential of the immune system to recognize and counteract this type of lymphoma.8,9,10 Although these findings suggest that the clinical course of follicular lymphoma can be modulated by immune responses, our study provides a molecular signature of the *type* of immune response that is associated with long-term survival.

It is also possible that the lymph-node cells responsible for the immune-response 1 signature provide trophic signals that promote the survival or proliferation of the malignant cells. This signature could represent a variant germinal-center reaction that includes T cells, follicular dendritic cells, and the malignant cells. The dependence of the malignant cells on these environmental signals may prevent them from leaving the lymph node, possibly accounting for the association between the immune-response 1 signature and prolonged survival. An understanding of the nature of these trophic signals provided by the microenvironment in follicular lymphoma could provide new targets for therapy."

Source:  http://content.nejm.org 

Depressed immunity is a known risk factor for developing lymphoma. And both the disease and the treatments of it can impair immune function.

"Cancer patients may wish to use these botanicals to inhibit tumor growth or to boost resistance to infections. However, passive immunotherapy with herbs, with no mechanism to expose tumor antigens, is unlikely to be effective in inhibiting tumor growth. Although the margin of safety for these herbs is large, more research is needed to demonstrate the clear value of using herbs to improve resistance to infections." 1

Be aware that supplements that stimulate immunity in theory can also stimulate lymphomas, a cancer of immune cells. (See the caution below.)

Th1/Th2 immunity: 

TOPIC SEARCH: PubMed 

It is generally believed that the Th1 immune profile helps to fight cancer. Shifting the immune status to Th1 *might* be beneficial to fighting lymphoma and augmenting immune therapies.

"T cells may be broadly classified as either helper T cells (Th cells, CD4⁺) or cytotoxic T cells (Tc cells, CD8⁺). In 1986, T.R. Mosmann, R.L. Coffman, and colleagues observed that individual clones of helper T cells could be separated into two classes depending upon the specific cytokines the cells secrete in response to antigenic stimulation.¹ 

The two helper T cell classes also differ by the type of immune response they produce. While Th1 cells tend to generate responses against intracellular parasites such as bacteria and viruses, Th2 cells produce immune responses against helminths and other extracellular parasites.^2,3 Interestingly, the cytokines produced by each Th subset tend to both stimulate production of that Th subset, and inhibit development of the other Th subset. That is, IFN-g produced by Th1 cells has the dual effect of both stimulating Th1 development, and inhibiting Th2 development. Th2-secreted IL-10 has the opposite effect.^4" Source:  The Scientist - By Jeffrey M. Perkel

NOTE: Maturation of dendritic cells: Importantly, fish oil and Vitamin D-3 may inhibit the maturation of dendritic cells, cells that present antigens to T-cells and are therefore vital to an immune response. Avoiding these supplements may be important while receiving immune therapies, such as vaccines and antibodies, even if they may be otherwise beneficial.

More on Supplements, Life Style, and Immunity:

TOPIC SEARCH Immunity: 
Exercise | Herbs | Melatonin | Probiotics | Vitamin E  | Whey | Zinc

Related abstracts:

1. Immune system effects of echinacea, ginseng, and astragalus: a review.
   Integr Cancer Ther. 2003 Sep;2(3):247-67. Review. PMID: 15035888 | Related articles

2. Curcumin inhibits Th1 cytokine profile in CD4+ T cells by suppressing interleukin-12 production in macrophages. Br J Pharmacol. 1999 Sep;128(2):380-4. PMID: 10510448 | Related articles

3. Depressing the immune system - Synapse Fall_98 
   "In a pilot study of depressed geriatric patients, the investigators at UNMC were able to demonstrate a reliable elevation in NKCA when these patients were treated with a serotonin reuptake inhibitor."

4. Whey protein concentrate (WPC) and glutathione modulation in cancer treatment.
   Anticancer Res. 2000 Nov-Dec;20(6C):4785-92. Review. PMID: 11205219 PubMed

5. T-helper (Th)1/Th2 imbalance in patients with previously untreated B-cell diffuse large cell lymphoma. Cancer Immunol Immunother. 2001 Dec;50(10):566-8. abstract |  related abstracts

6. Effect of 50- and 100-mg vitamin E supplements on cellular immune function in non-institutionalized elderly persons. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999 Jun;69(6):1273-81. abstract | related abstracts

7. Melatonin modulation of lymphocyte proliferation and Th1/Th2 cytokine expression.
   J Neuroimmunol. 2001 Jul 2;117(1-2):51-7. abstract | related abstracts

8. Lactobacilli (probiotic) differentially modulate expression of cytokines and maturation surface markers in murine dendritic cells. J Immunol. 2002 Jan 1;168(1):171-8. abstract | related abstracts

9. Flow cytometric analysis of the Th1-Th2 balance in healthy individuals and patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) receiving a plant sterol/sterolin mixture. Cell Biol Int. 2001;25(1):43-9. abstract | related abstracts  Note: Saw Palmetto is high in plant sterols.

10. Effects of zinc deficiency on Th1 and Th2 cytokine shifts. J Infect Dis. 2000 Sep;182 Suppl 1:S62-8. abstract | related abstracts Note: NHL pts are commonly zinc deficient abstract

11. Recommended:

Should patients with lymphomas avoid non-specific Immune stimulation?

CAUTION: Immune stimulants, such as Echinacea and various medicinal mushrooms, may stimulate the growth of lymphoma (immune) cells. LEF.org  It is thought that stimulating immune cells may promote the growth of lymphoma - a cancer of immune cells.

Also see Alerts

We strongly urge you to consult with your doctor before using any supplement while receiving treatment. 

Iron

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Iron is an essential mineral. Excessive iron, however, may promote tumor growth.

TOPIC SEARCH: PubMed 

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Licorice root

Recommended resource:
The Natural Pharmacist

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Licochalcone-A is one flavonoids extracted from licorice root with antiparasitic and anti-tumor activity. Immunoblot analysis demonstrated that LA decreased the anti-apoptotic protein bcl-2, a gene that's often over expressed in lymphomas - in cell culture. 

Background: wikipedia.org 

TOPIC SEARCH: PubMed 

Also see Alerts