Myo-Inositol for Lung Cancer Prevention?
The B vitamin-related natural substance, myo-inositol is in the news lately. Now new research suggests that changes in a set of genes that are active in smokers who go on to develop lung cancer might offer early detection and even prevention treatments. Once cancer is initiated, the factors that promote it can differ from those that initiate it.
In any event, the gene involved is called PI3K, which interacts with inositol. Patients in a trial of inositol for lung cancer prevention apparently showed reductions in the activation of the PI3K. So, inositol may tell the genetic and cellular changes that precede full expression of lung cancer to stand down and halt their progression toward disease.
Sounds worth exploring. As always, who knows if inositol would have actual clinical benefits and low risk, and it is up to each person at risk of cancer or with cancer now to decide at this point in time if the current unknowns about inositol are worth dealing with sooner rather than later (as usual, myo-inositol is widely available over the counter in health food stores). This is worth a discussion with your doctor, though, if lung cancer (or some other cancers where inositol might be helpful) is a concern for you.
Here’s the whole abstract about this latest study:
Sci Transl Med. 2010 Apr 7;2(26):26ra25.
Airway PI3K Pathway Activation Is an Early and Reversible Event in Lung Cancer Development.
Gustafson AM, Soldi R, Anderlind C, Scholand MB, Qian J, Zhang X, Cooper K, Walker D, McWilliams A, Liu G, Szabo E, Brody J, Massion PP, Lenburg ME, Lam S, Bild AH, Spira A.
Section of Computational Biomedicine, Department of Medicine and Pulmonary Center, Boston University Medical Center, Boston, MA 02118, USA.
Abstract
Although only a subset of smokers develop lung cancer, we cannot determine which smokers are at highest risk for cancer development, nor do we know the signaling pathways altered early in the process of tumorigenesis in these individuals. On the basis of the concept that cigarette smoke creates a molecular field of injury throughout the respiratory tract, this study explores oncogenic pathway deregulation in cytologically normal proximal airway epithelial cells of smokers at risk for lung cancer. We observed a significant increase in a genomic signature of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway activation in the cytologically normal bronchial airway of smokers with lung cancer and smokers with dysplastic lesions, suggesting that PI3K is activated in the proximal airway before tumorigenesis. Further, PI3K activity is decreased in the airway of high-risk smokers who had significant regression of dysplasia after treatment with the chemopreventive agent myo-inositol, and myo-inositol inhibits the PI3K pathway in vitro. These results suggest that deregulation of the PI3K pathway in the bronchial airway epithelium of smokers is an early, measurable, and reversible event in the development of lung cancer and that genomic profiling of these relatively accessible airway cells may enable personalized approaches to chemoprevention and therapy. Our work further suggests that additional lung cancer chemoprevention trials either targeting the PI3K pathway or measuring airway PI3K activation as an intermediate endpoint are warranted.
Inositol Related Product for Better Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Survivors
Here’s a recent abstract on a study suggesting that an inositol product might improve quality of life for breast cancer survivors. Myo-inositol is a lesser known type of B complex vitamin that the body can produce from glucose, but can be found in some nutritional supplements.
J Exp Clin Cancer Res. 2010 Feb 12;29:12.
Efficacy of IP6 + inositol in the treatment of breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy: prospective, randomized, pilot clinical study.
Baci? I, Druzijani? N, Karlo R, Skifi? I, Jagi? S.
Department of Surgery, General Hospital Zadar, 23000 Zadar, Croatia.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Prospective, randomized, pilot clinical study was conducted to evaluate the beneficial effects of inositol hexaphosphate (IP6) + Inositol in breast cancer patients treated with adjuvant therapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with invasive ductal breast cancer where polychemotherapy was indicated were monitored in the period from 2005-2007. Fourteen patients in the same stage of ductal invasive breast cancer were involved in the study, divided in two randomized groups. One group was subjected to take IP6 + Inositol while the other group was taking placebo. In both groups of patients the same laboratory parameters were monitored. When the treatment was finished, all patients have filled questionnaires QLQ C30 and QLQ-BR23 to determine the quality of life. RESULTS: Patients receiving chemotherapy, along with IP6 + Inositol did not have cytopenia, drop in leukocyte and platelet counts. Red blood cell counts and tumor markers were unaltered in both groups. However, patients who took IP6 + Inositol had significantly better quality of life (p = 0.05) and functional status (p = 0.0003) and were able to perform their daily activities. CONCLUSION: IP6 + Inositol as an adjunctive therapy is valuable help in ameliorating the side effects and preserving quality of life among the patients treated with chemotherapy.
Folate in Hearing Loss for Men?
New research has apparently found that folic acid supplements delay hearing loss related to aging in low frequency sounds. The benefit of increased folic acid intake from food and/or supplements is especially marked in men over the age of 60. This is good news, as loss of hearing can be socially very isolating for older individuals, as it makes socializing with others more difficult in social situations such as mealtimes when extraneous ambient noise can make it especially hard to discern certain voices or sounds.
Interestingly, in the recent studies, vitamins C, E and beta-carotene do not have benefits for hearing, in contrast with folic acid.
Coenzyme Q10 to Slow Parkinson’s Disease?
Researchers have been looking at the possibility that a natural supplement with a vitamin-like role in the body (coenzyme) called Coenzyme Q10 might slow the progression of the degenerative neurological disorder Parkinson’s Disease. The energy factories of the cells, mitochondria, need enough Co-Q10 to function at their best, and it appears that people with Parkinson’s are low in supplies of this vital coenzyme.
Initial studies suggest that even doses much higher than many people might take from the health food store (300 mg/day) don’t seem to affect the progression of the Parkinson’s. However, newer data indicate that it might take extremely high doses (1200 mg or even 2400 mg/day) to have a therapeutic effect.
At those doses, Co-Q10 is being used like a drug, and we have to watch for possible adverse effects. It is a natural substance that the body needs, but whenever you have to push the dose of something out of bounds of its usual levels in the body, you have to worry that you will knock something else off balance (see the discussion of this point in my Getting Whole, Getting Well book.
Remember, too, that people who take statin drugs to lower their cholesterol level are at high risk of depleting coenzyme Q10.
Vitamins and Osteoporosis – What’s Up? (or Down)
While I know the value of using drugs to save lives, I am nonetheless amazed at the mindset we have in health care that we head for a drug or vaccine every time a chronic disease problem arises. In the case of osteoporosis, there needs to be some common sense. If you look at the literature even a little, you will see that women probably reduce their risk of bone fractures (which is really what matters – though many studies focus just on bone density) by taking enough vitamin D (especially D3), vitamin K2 (perhaps especially MK-7 form), and strontium supplements.
Are these perfect? Are they free of risks? No to both questions. But, so far, it appears that the risks from these nutritional supplements are considerably lower than from the typical bone density-focused drugs like the bisphosphonates (common drugs for reducing loss of bone mass). Why are we not hearing more about the vitamins here, especially when it makes sense that the source of a health problem could come from how we live more than from a lack of bisphosphonates in our bodies…
Another clue – do we start hearing that a vitamin we associate with one particular benefit turns up with another benefit (hint: unlike drugs, nutrients like vitamins have multiple “intended” roles in the body). So, lately we hear about vitamin D reducing flu risk and perhaps cardiovascular risk. Vitamin K is now emerging in epidemiological studies as a possible way to lower cardiovascular risk as well ( Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2009 Sep;19(7):504-10).
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