Grapefruit juice may fight cancer
For more than 20 years, pharmacists have advised not to take grapefruit juice with various medications because it can interfere with the enzymes that break down and eliminate certain drugs, thus making the drugs more potent.
Now, scientists believe they can harness grapefruit juice’s drug-alerting properties to make cancer fighting drugs more powerful as they move through the body.
In a small, early clinical trial, researchers at the University of Chicago Medical Center have found that combining eight ounces of grapefruit juice with the drug rapamycin can increase drug levels, allowing lower doses of the drug to be given.
They also showed that the combination can be effective in treating various types of cancer.
“Grapefruit juice can increase blood levels of certain drugs three to five times,” said study director, Dr Ezra Cohen, a cancer specialist at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
“This has always been considered a hazard. We wanted to see if, and how much, it could amplify the availability, and perhaps the efficacy of rapamycin, a drug with promise for cancer treatment”.
This trial was designed to test “whether we could use this to boost rapamycin’s bioavailability to the patient’s advantage, to determine how much the juice altered drug levels, and to assess its impact on anti-cancer activity and side effects,” he said.
Still, 25 participants remained in the study long enough to be evaluated. Seven of those 25 had stable disease, with little or no tumor growth.
One patient had a partial response, with the tumor shrinking by about 30%. That patient is still doing well more than a year after beginning the trial.
