Omega-3 fatty acids are protective against paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy: A randomized double-blind placebo controlled trial

BMC Cancer

Research Article

Masoud Darabi¹  Banafsheh Golestan²  Shahriar Hashemzade³  Vahid Montazeri³  Seyed Ali Keshavarz⁴  Zohreh Ghoreishi⁴  Mahmoud Djalali⁴  Abolghasem Djazayeri⁴  Ali Esfahani⁵  Hormoz Ayromlou⁶  Mohammad Asghari Jafarabadi⁷ 

[1] Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical sciences, Tabriz, Iran;Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran;Department of General Surgery, School of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran;Department of Nutrition and Biochemistry, School of Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran;Hematology and Oncology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran;Neurology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran;Tabriz Health Services Management research Center and Department of Statistics and Epidemiology, Faculty of Health and Nutrition, Tabriz University of Medical sciences, Tabriz, Iran;

关键词: Breast cancer;    Omega-3 fatty acids;    Paclitaxel;    Peripheral neuropathy;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2407-12-355

 received in 2012-03-17, accepted in 2012-08-03,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAxonal sensory peripheral neuropathy is the major dose-limiting side effect of paclitaxel.Omega-3 fatty acids have beneficial effects on neurological disorders from their effects on neurons cells and inhibition of the formation of proinflammatory cytokines involved in peripheral neuropathy.MethodsThis study was a randomized double blind placebo controlled trial to investigate the efficacy of omega-3 fatty acids in reducing incidence and severity of paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy (PIPN). Eligible patients with breast cancer randomly assigned to take omega-3 fatty acid pearls, 640 mg t.i.d during chemotherapy with paclitaxel and one month after the end of the treatment or placebo. Clinical and electrophysiological studies were performed before the onset of chemotherapy and one month after cessation of therapy to evaluate PIPN based on "reduced Total Neuropathy Score".ResultsTwenty one patients (70%) of the group taking omega-3 fatty acid supplement (n = 30) did not develop PN while it was 40.7%( 11 patients) in the placebo group(n = 27). A significant difference was seen in PN incidence (OR = 0.3, .95% CI = (0.10-0.88), p = 0.029). There was a non-significant trend for differences of PIPN severity between the two study groups but the frequencies of PN in all scoring categories were higher in the placebo group (0.95% CI = (−2.06 -0.02), p = 0.054).ConclusionsOmega-3 fatty acids may be an efficient neuroprotective agent for prophylaxis against PIPN. Patients with breast cancer have a longer disease free survival rate with the aid of therapeutical agents. Finding a way to solve the disabling effects of PIPN would significantly improve the patients’ quality of life.Trial registrationThis trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01049295)

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Ghoreishi et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.