City Research Online

Abstract

Purpose: Late toxicities such as arthritis, common after Breast Cancer (BC), impacts quality of life and restricts the ability to exercise. Epidemiology studies have inked higher intake of polyphenol-rich foods with less arthritis. Laboratory studies show these food reduce intraarticular inflammation and oxidative stress, allowing greater mobility although clinical intervention studies are lacking.

Methods: This was an open label evaluation of a polyphenol-rich whole food supplement (Pomi-T) supplied to volunteer members of the Japanese Women’s Cancer Support Group, Tokyo. 44 of 120 women responded to invitations. Joint discomfort, mobility, mood and hot flushes were recorded at baseline and after 2 months Pomi-T using validated questionnaires. 38 of 44 completed pre and post forms (average age of 48, range 26-62 years).

Results: The mean improvement in mood was 1.9 (19.96-18.06), with a paired T-test of p=0.01. Mean reduction in hot flush score was 6.68 (38.41-31.71), with a two tailed sign test of p=0.016. Mean reduction in joint pain, stiffness and immobility was 3.84 (25.21-21.37), with a two tailed sign test of p=0.011. Positive comments from individuals included an unexpected reduction in hay fever symptoms in 8 patients.

Conclusion: This open labelled study demonstrated that symptomatic women with BC had a statistically significant reduction in arthralgia, hot flushes and improved mood after consuming a polyphenol-rich nutritional supplement. The reduction hay fever symptoms requires separate exploration but this pilot has provided sufficient encouragement and justification to proceed to a more statistically robust double-blind, randomised control trial.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an open access article made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License. With this license readers can share, distribute, download, even commercially, as long as the original source is properly cited.
Publisher Keywords:	Breast cancer; Polyphenols; Arthritis; Mood; Hot flushes
Subjects:	R Medicine R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0254 Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology (including Cancer) R Medicine > RG Gynecology and obstetrics
Departments:	Bayes Business School > Actuarial Science & Insurance

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