Probiotics by their properties may help strengthen homeostasis and thus reduce side effects associated with cancer treatment (myeloma chemotherapy)
Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable blood cancer with an average life expectancy of 5-7 years according to the ACS. Much of the discussion for newly diagnosed MM patients is about autologous stem cell transplants. ASCT’s are aggressive, hightly toxic, high dose procedures. I believe you must re-think your multiple myeloma chemotherapy strategy.
What is rarely discussed is the importance of the MM patient’s induction therapy. Studies hint that the better the MM patient responds to his/her induction therapy, the less the importance of an immediate ASCT.
I blogged about a study I read a while back about “prehabilitation.“ Simply put, prehabilitation is getting your body in shape to undergo cancer surgery, chemo, radiation, etc. People who prehabilitate recover faster, have fewer side effects, in short, do better before, during and after their surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy.
Prehabilitation Regimen:
- “General exercise;
- Targeted exercise depending on the patient population and diagnosis;
- Nutritional interventions designed to support specific outcomes, tailored by diagnosis and patient;
- Stress reduction;
- Smoking cessation…”
Under the “nutritional interventions” I can point to studies citing the importance of vitamins such as B, C, D3, E, minerals such as magnesium and nutritional antioxidants such as curcumin, green tea extract and resveratrol.
Now comes the study linked and excerpted below citing probiotics as an adjunct therapy to chemotherapy and radiation. Therefore, I would like to add probiotic therapy to the prehabilitation regimen for cancer patients. Why? The studies linked and excerpted below explain two things. First, that multiple myeloma therapies are extremely toxic. Second, that MM therapies are often required for long periods of time. And thirdly, that probiotics help a body get through can manage the toxicity of chemotherapy.
It’s important to highlight that the study below specifically points out that ” Experimental evidence suggests that probiotics might have beneficial effect on the toxicity of anticancer therapy…” Translation… probiotics may reduce side effects of chemo or radiation.
I take Garden of Life Whole Food Probiotic Supplement every morning. This probiotic has been evaluated and approved by Consumerlab.com.
Multiple Myeloma – Nutritional Supplementation
To Learn More About Kidney Failure in Multiple Myeloma click now
To Learn More About Hyperviscosity in Multiple Myeloma- click now
Multiple Myeloma Symptom, Side Effect, Cause of Death- Renal Insufficiency
I am a long-term multiple myeloma survivor and MM cancer coach. For more information about prehabilitation to help you through your “induction therapy” after a cancer diagnosis, scroll down the page, post a question and I will reply ASAP.
thank you,
David Emerson
- Multiple Myeloma Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director Galen Foundation
Recommended Reading:
“Conclusions- Historically, the dose of anti–myeloma drugs and treatment duration has been largely determined by adverse events such as myelosuppression or PN. The introduction of several new potent anti–myeloma agents to the treatment algorithm, together with the traditional compounds, has allowed for various highly effective anti–myeloma regimens.
However, this therapeutic diversity has brought more complexity to the treatment decision process, because different regimens perform comparably in meeting efficacy endpoints, yet may exhibit different side-effect profiles.
Because the paradigm has shifted from short-term drug exposure to long-term treatment, vigilance for early and late drug toxicities has become even more important. The treatment of choice for an individual patient should therefore rely not only on disease characteristics but also on patient factors such as age, general condition, comorbidities, and side effects of prior treatment.
First and foremost, a careful balance between a highly effective treatment regimen and the individual patient’s tolerance profile should be considered. During treatment, a proactive approach to prevent adverse events warrants a combination of screening for risk factors, regular monitoring, and collecting patient-reported outcomes….”
“BACKGROUND: Probiotics are live microorganisms, which as drugs or food supplements help to maintain health beneficial microbial balance in the digestive tract of a human or other host. Probiotics by their properties may help strengthen homeostasis and thus reduce side effects associated with cancer treatment. Experimental evidence suggests that probiotics might have beneficial effect on the toxicity of anticancer therapy…
Probiotics might have beneficial effects on some aspects of toxicity related to anticancer treatment especially radiation therapy. However, reported trials vary in utilized probiotic strains, dose of probiotics and vast majority of them are small trials with substantial risk of bias. Despite limited data, it seems that probiotic bacteria as live microorganisms could be safely administered even in the setting of neutropenia…
Despite limited data, it seems that probiotic bacteria as live microorganisms could be safely administered even in the setting of neutropenia…“
“This work evaluated the capacity of two probiotic strains, Lactobacillus casei CRL431 and Lactobacillus rhamnosus CRL1506, to protect against myelosuppression and immunosuppression in cyclophosphamide (Cy)-treated mice.
Changes in mature granulocytes and progenitor cells in bone marrow (BM) and blood were studied. In addition, the ability of probiotics to accelerate the recovery of the immune response against the opportunistic pathogen Candida albicans was evaluated.
We demonstrated for the first time that the preventive treatment with immunomodulatory lactobacilli such as L. casei CRL431 or L. rhamnosus CRL1506 was able to increase immature myeloid progenitors in the BM, allowing an early recovery of myeloid cells after Cy administration.
Probiotic lactobacilli were also capable to induce an early recovery of neutrophils in blood, improve phagocytic cells recruitment to infectious sites and increase the resistance against the opportunistic pathogen C. albicans.
Although deeper studies regarding the cellular and molecular mechanisms of probiotic actions are needed, these findings support the idea that strains like CRL431 and CRL1506 may accelerate the recovery of Cy-caused immunosuppression by immunopotentiating myeloid cells.
Then, probiotic lactobacilli have the potential to be used as alternatives for lessening chemotherapy-induced immunosuppression in cancer patients.”
APPIP ERROR: amazonproducts[
AccessDeniedAwsUsers|The Access Key Id AKIAJAJ37JVNL7OUU4CA is not enabled for accessing this version of Product Advertising API. Please migrate your credentials as referred here https://webservices.amazon.com/paapi5/documentation/migrating-your-product-advertising-api-account-from-your-aws-account.html.
]
