This is a somewhat surprising and very worrying development (given that my son is on resveratrol and docetaxel - a chemo drug related to pacitaxel):
Eur J Cancer. 2010 Mar 9.
Resveratrol attenuates the anticancer efficacy of paclitaxel in human breast cancer cells invitro and in vivo.
Fukui M, Yamabe N, Zhu BT.
Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics, School of Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA.
It was reported recently that resveratrol could sensitise a number of cancer cell lines to the anticancer actions of several other cancer drugs, including paclitaxel. In the present study, we further investigated whether resveratrol could sensitise human breast cancer cells to paclitaxel-induced cell death. Unexpectedly, we found that resveratrol strongly diminished the susceptibility of MDA-MB-435s, MDA-MB-231 and SKBR-3 cells to paclitaxel-induced cell death in culture, although this effect was not observed in MCF-7 cells. Using MDA-MB-435s cells as a representative model, a similar observation was made in athymic nude mice. Mechanistically, the modulating effect of resveratrol was partially attributable to its inhibition of paclitaxel-induced G(2)/M cell cycle arrest, together with an accumulation of cells in the S-phase. In addition, resveratrol could suppress paclitaxel-induced accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and subsequently the inactivation of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins. These observations suggest that the strategy of concomitant use of resveratrol with paclitaxel is detrimental in certain types of human cancers. Given the widespread use of resveratrol among cancer patients, this study calls for more preclinical and clinical testing of the potential benefits and harms of using resveratrol as a dietary adjuvant in cancer patients.
Comments, anyone?
I have prostate cancer. I'm getting Vitamin C IVs to stimulate my immune system and also create ROS to kill cancer cells. I'm also taking at least 3 grams of Resveratrol a day in the form of Nitro 250 plus buccal Resveratrol powder. Bill Sardi of Longev* started me off on Resveratrol. Bill told me the mechanism by which Resveratrol at higher doses would kill cancer is oxidation, i.e. ROS. The literature shows Bill's statement was wrong. Bill told me to take 10 grams of fish oil daily to aid in the oxidation and that the IVC would help in the oxidation. Well, it looks as though Resveratrol is actually preventing the IVC from killing cancer cells with ROS. Dr. Snuffy Myers, the prostate cancer survivor and expert prostate cancer prostate cancer oncologist tells his patients to take 500-1000 mg. each of Resveratrol and Quercetin in the form of Nitro 250 and MCT Quercetin but that prostate cancer patients should only take Resveratrol while under the care of a physician who knows all the medical implications of Resveratrol. This is better said than done since use of Resveratrol is very new and scarcely researched.
Thanks for the very helpful post. More things to ponder.
The thing about Quercetin is that it's a very strong inducer of Nrf2 - which drives the anti-oxidant response that protects the cell from oxidative damage...
I'm aware of that. I'm taking the high dose of Resvaratrol for its other chemo effects. I'm taking the Quercetin to make sure the potent dose of Resveratrol isn't deactivated during first pass by the liver. I'm looking for info on just how much Resveratrol taken at one time will swamp the liver's action against. Any ideas?
Nothing concrete. However, it seemed to me that synergism with curcumin is a line of inquiry worth following. Not only does curcumin attack multiple cancer pathways, it also inhibits liver metabolism to some extent. Have you looked at this?
This is a real minefield - the anti-cancer effects of resveratrol vary by cell line even within cancer subtype... I guess that's to be expected given the complex genomic instability of cancer but it makes it hard to make a decision in the absence of well validated clinical trials.
I read about the experiments with bioavailability of curcumin. It looks like just dissolving the stuff in hot coconut milk is the way to go. I'll place an order for some curcumin today and start downing it. I tried this before and everything got stained yellow as the curcumin oozed out from where the sun doesn't shine even in sleep. But, it can't be half as bad as the gastric distress in squirts I get from the MCT Quercetin.