What About Nutritional Supplements for Mesothelioma?

As someone who's written nine books on nutritional supplements, you might suppose I'd be all in favor of nutritional supplementation as a supportive therapy for mesothelioma.

Nutritional supplements are great in some circumstances. Mesothelioma, for the most part, isn't one of them. Folic acid and its partners, B12 and SAM-e, as well as vitamin E are the useful exceptions to the rule.

For mesothelioma patients receiving chemotherapy with pemetrexed disodium (ALIMTA), folic acid really does help reduce the toxicity of the chemo without reducing its effectiveness.

The reason folic acid, and, for that matter, vitamin B12, and S-adenosylmethionine (SAM-e) are useful during chemo for mesothelioma is that they support a process called methylation. Methylation turns on detoxification (which doesn't take this drug out of the system, just other toxins that would make its side effects worse), and it also supports the production of melatonin, making it easier to sleep, and serotonin, improving mood.

For mesothelioma patients in general, calcium, vitamin D, and shark cartilage are a bad idea. If the disease has progressed, it can release calcium from bone. The additional calcium in your blood stream you can get from taking calcium, vitamin D, or shark cartilage can cause hypercalcemia. Symptoms of hypercalcemia are altered mental status, needing to urinate all the time, vague bone pain, constipation, and headache. If you've been taking these supplements to support mesothelioma and you have these symptoms, please consult a doctor.

Other supplements are iffy but can have special applications. If your doctor gives you the drug Trental (pentoxyfilline) to prevent injury to the healthy tissues in your lung during radiation therapy, 400 IU of vitamin E (in this case, alpha-tocopherol will work) twice a day is demonstrated to reduce radiation's side effects, especially fibrosis of the lung that can be induced by radiation to treat cancer. It's important to let your doctor know any supplements you are taking just in case you have to have an emergency procedure that supplements might affect.

Generally speaking, treatment for mesothelioma is a time to get all the calories you can. This is far more important than taking all the supplements that someone might try to sell you, although all the supplements listed here cost less than US $10 a month.

Your comments and shared experiences are welcome below. You may also be interested in:

Asbestos, Diet, and Mesothelioma: Could Eating Right Prevent One of the Deadliest Cancers?
Is Remission from Mesothelioma Possible?
Mesothelioma Revisited
References:

Lagman R, Walsh D. Dangerous nutrition? Calcium, vitamin D, and shark cartilage nutritional supplements and cancer-related hypercalcemia. Support Care Cancer. 2003 Apr; 11(4):232-5.

Hanauske AR, Chen V, Paoletti P, Niyikiza C. Pemetrexed disodium: a novel antifolate clinically active against multiple solid tumors. Oncologist. 2001; 6(4):363-73.