Probiotic pills may curb chemo-induced diarrhea

Last Updated: 2007-11-09 14:21:19 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In cancer patients, treatment with the probiotic Lactobacillus, a beneficial type of microbe, may reduce the frequency of severe diarrhea and abdominal pain that often comes with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-based chemotherapy, according to results of a randomized study conducted in Finland.

The study involved 150 colorectal cancer patients who were treated with 5-FU-based chemotherapy for 24 weeks following surgery. On the basis of random allocation, patients did or did not receive pills containing Lactobacillus, with or without guar gum fiber, during chemotherapy.

In the British Journal of Cancer, Dr. Pia Osterlund from Helsinki University Central Hospital and colleagues report that patients who received Lactobacillus during chemotherapy were less apt to have severe diarrhea, reported less abdominal pain, needed less hospital care and had fewer instances where they had to reduce the dose of chemotherapy due to bowel trouble.

Lactobacillus pills were well tolerated by the patients. The addition of guar gum fiber to Lactobacillus yielded no further reduction in adverse gastrointestinal effects.

"Somewhat unexpectedly," Osterlund and colleagues note, "nutritional supplements have not been evaluated in the prevention and treatment of chemotherapy-related gastrointestinal adverse effects in controlled studies."

The current findings, they conclude, suggest that Lactobacillus supplementation "may be a practical and well-tolerated means to reduce the severity of 5-FU-based chemotherapy-induced diarrhea, and deserves to be evaluated further."

SOURCE: British Journal of Cancer, October 16, 2007.