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. Vitamin E and hyperforin levels in rat plasma correlated with dietary intake. There was no significant effect of vitamin E supplementation on the hematologic toxicity or survival in rats treated with a range of doxorubicin or docetaxel doses. There were no important perturbations of the pharmacokinetics of doxorubicin related to dietary intake of vitamin E or St. John's wort. Rats ingesting St. John's wort had similar survival at each dose level of doxorubicin to rats ingesting the control diet. There were no important modulatory effects of vitamin E on mitochondrial DNA damage after doxorubicin. Our studies indicate that vitamin E and St. John's wort neither increase nor protect against the toxicity of doxorubicin or docetaxel in rats.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA416778
Entities
People
- Richard F. Branda
Organizations
- University of Vermont