Echium oil is not protective against weight loss in head and neck cancer patients undergoing curative radio(chemo)therapy: a randomised-controlled trial

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Research Article

Laurence Goethals¹  Philip R Debruyne²  Lies Pottel³  Michelle Lycke³  Sylvie Rottey⁴  Imogen Foubert⁵  Alex Maes⁶  Stefan Goemaere⁷  Hans Pottel⁸  Fréderic Duprez⁹  Tom Boterberg^1,10 

[1] Cancer Centre, General Hospital Groeninge, Loofstraat 43, B-8500, Kortrijk, Belgium;Cancer Centre, General Hospital Groeninge, Loofstraat 43, B-8500, Kortrijk, Belgium;Ageing and Cancer Research Cluster, Centre for Positive Ageing, University of Greenwich, London, UK;Cancer Centre, General Hospital Groeninge, Loofstraat 43, B-8500, Kortrijk, Belgium;Department of Radiation Oncology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium;Ageing and Cancer Research Cluster, Centre for Positive Ageing, University of Greenwich, London, UK;Department of Medical Oncology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium;Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems, Food Science and Nutrition Research Centre (LForCe), Catholic University Leuven Kulak, Kortrijk, Belgium;Department of Nuclear Medicine, General Hospital Groeninge, Kortrijk, Belgium;Department of Osteoporosis and Metabolic Bone Diseases, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium;Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Catholic University Leuven Kulak, Kortrijk, Belgium;Department of Radiation Oncology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium;Department of Radiation Oncology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium;Ageing and Cancer Research Cluster, Centre for Positive Ageing, University of Greenwich, London, UK;

关键词: Head and neck cancer;    Cachexia;    Echium oil;    Weight loss;    Radio(chemo)therapy;    Curative intent;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6882-14-382

 received in 2014-09-04, accepted in 2014-09-26,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundTherapy-induced mucositis and dysphagia puts head and neck (H&N) cancer patients at increased risk for developing cachexia. Omega-3 fatty acids (n-3 FA) have been suggested to protect against cachexia. We aimed to examine if echium oil, a plant source of n-3 FA, could reduce weight loss in H&N cancer patients undergoing radio(chemo)therapy with curative intent.MethodsIn a double-blind trial, patients were randomly assigned to echium oil (intervention (I) group; 7.5 ml bis in die (b.i.d.), 235 mg/ml α-linolenic acid (ALA) + 95 mg/ml stearidonic acid (SDA) + 79 mg/ml γ-linolenic acid (GLA)) or n-3 FA deficient sunflower oil high oleic (control (C) group; 7.5 ml b.i.d.) additional to standard nutritional support during treatment. Differences in percentage weight loss between both groups were analysed according to the intention-to-treat principle. Erythrocyte FA profile, body composition, nutritional status and quality of life were collected.ResultsNinety-one eligible patients were randomised, of whom 83 were evaluable. Dietary supplement adherence was comparable in both groups (median, I: 87%, C: 81%). At week 4, the I group showed significantly increased values of erythrocyte n-3 eicosapentanoic acid (EPA, 14% vs −5%) and n-6 GLA (42% vs −20%) compared to the C group, without a significant change in n-6 arachidonic acid (AA, 2% vs −1%). Intention-to-treat analysis could not reveal a significant reduction in weight loss related to echium oil consumption (median weight loss, I: 8.9%, C: 7.6%). Also, no significant improvement was observed in the other evaluated anthropometric parameters.ConclusionsEchium oil effectively increased erythrocyte EPA and GLA FAs in H&N cancer patients. It failed however to protect against weight loss, or improve nutritional parameters.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT01596933.

【 授权许可】

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© Pottel et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014. 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/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.