Mesothelioma Chemotherapy: Can Supplements Make it Safer?
Vitamin B12 and folic acid supplements are often given to mesothelioma patients who are on chemotherapy in an effort to ward off neutropenia, a dangerous drop in white blood cells that can leave patients vulnerable to infection. Neutropenia has been linked to elevated levels of an amino acid called homocysteine, and pemetrexed can raise homocysteine. While some studies have found that supplementation makes chemotherapy less toxic, a team of British doctors found the supplements had little impact on a group of mesothelioma patients who were not on pemetrexed. Scientists at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton, UK randomly assigned 83 patients with advanced lung cancer or malignant mesothelioma to receive platinum-based chemotherapy with or without B12 and folic acid supplementation. They were looking…