Effects of St. John's Wort and Vitamin E on Breast Cancer Chemotherapeutic Agents
Abstract
The purpose of this research project is to better understand the interaction of dietary supplements with cancer chemotherapeutic drugs. This information may be useful to decrease the toxicity and increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy. The scope of the research involves in vivo assessments in rats of nutritional supplement chemotherapeutic drug interactions and in vitro studies of the mechanisms of nutraceutical-chemotherapeutic drug interactions. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methodology has been adapted/refined for the detection and determination of doxorubicin and vitamin E. Under the conditions used by us, we found that there was no significant effect of vitamin E supplementation on hematologic toxicity or survival in rats treated with a range of doxorubicin doses. There were no important perturbations of the pharmacokinetics of doxorubicin associated with changes in the vitamin E content of rat diets. Preliminary results indicated that treatment with St. John's wort alters the plasma pharmacokinetics of doxorubicin. Our studies suggest that even relatively high doses of vitamin E do not adversely affect the toxicity of doxorubicin. On the other hand, St. Johns wort may decrease peak levels of doxorubicin. Further studies will help to determine whether important interactions occur between these nutrients and cancer chemotherapeutic agents.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA406841
Entities
People
- Richard F. Branda
Organizations
- University of Vermont