Supplementation with fish oil

[Alisa]

http://www.mdlinx.com/oncology/newsl-ar ... -cell-lung

Supplementation with fish oil increases first-line chemotherapy efficacy in patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer

Cancer, 02/17/2011 Clinical Article

Murphy RA et al. – This study evaluated whether the combination of FO and chemotherapy (carboplatin with vinorelbine or gemcitabine) provided a benefit over standard of care (SOC) on response rate and clinical benefit from chemotherapy in patients with advanced NSCLC. Compared with SOC, supplementation with FO results in increased chemotherapy efficacy without affecting the toxicity profile and may contribute to increased survival.

Methods

•Forty-six patients completed the study, n = 31 in the SOC group and n = 15 in the FO group (2.5 g EPA + DHA/day)

•Response to chemotherapy was determined by clinical examination and imaging

•Response rate defined as sum of CR plus PR

•Clinical benefit defined as sum of CR, PR, and stable disease divided by number of patients

•Toxicities graded by nurse before each chemotherapy cycle

•Survival calculated 1 year after study enrollment

Results

•Patients in FO group had an increased RR and greater clinical benefit compared with SOC group (60.0% vs 25.8%, P = .008; 80.0% vs 41.9%, P = .02, respectively)

•Incidence of dose-limiting toxicity did not differ between groups (P = .46)

•One-year survival tended to be greater in FO group (60.0% vs 38.7%; P = .15)