Study describes promising approach for cancer treatment in the context of anorexia

A recent study by Rudolph M. Navari, director of the University of Notre Dame Walther Cancer Research Center, and Mary C. Brenner, a graduate of Notre-Dame, a student at Loyola University Medical School in Chicago, explains how a new combination of two drugs remain promising in the treatment of cancer in the context of anorexia (CRA).

Fifty percent of patients with a new diagnosis of cancer and 70% of patients with advanced cancer diseases can be a loss of appetite.

In previous studies, Navari and researchers have shown that the drug olanzapine has been very effective in controlling chemotherapy, the side effects more frequently.

Olanzapine, the brand name Zyprexa, has since the 1990s for the treatment of schizophrenia and other psychoses. In the first study, Navari and his researchers found that although olanzapine was added to corticosteroids and other anti-history for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, there was essentially no nausea or vomiting in the 24-hour period after treatment. The drug also prevents nausea and vomiting during the week after chemotherapy, when every day for two to five days.

The consumption of the drug megestrol acetate (MA) that in some patients CRA weight, but less effective in improving appetite and quality of life.

The new research study to assess the effectiveness of a combination of MA and olanzapine in the treatment of CRA.

A group of 80 patients with advanced gastrointestinal or lung cancer were randomly selected to MA alone, or in a combination of olanzapine and MA. Patients were four weeks and eight weeks, and the results showed that 20 of 39 patients with AD and olanzapine had significant improvements in weight gain, loss of appetite, nausea and measures quality of life.

Twenty-one of 37 patients, only my experience weight gain, but there was no significant change in appetite, nausea or quality of life measures, indicating that the association of 'olanzapine and MA appears to be effective in patients with CRA.

Navari, who is also assistant dean and director of the Indiana University School of Medicine, South Bend, paper, results of the annual conference of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer, June 25, 27 in Rome. The study was commissioned by the Walther Cancer Foundation of the family empire and the Foundation for the care, all patients.

Navari said the next step in research is a national study, in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic