Damage to gut bacteria linked with chemo-induced weight gain in breast cancer patients

Medical Xpress / University of Alberta / BMC Medicine ^ | July 13, 2023 | Gillian Rutherford / John Walker et al

[ConservativeMind]

Researchers have found a link between chemotherapy-induced changes to gut bacteria and the unhealthy weight gain seen in breast cancer patients, pointing the way to potentially help survivors avoid obesity-related illness later in their lives.

In newly published research, a team found that the patients treated with chemotherapy lost muscle mass and gained abdominal fat, which has been linked to heart disease, diabetes and even cancer recurrence. The chemo patients also exhibited signs of inflammation and significant changes to the number and variety of bacteria in their guts.

Obesity has been linked with several kinds of cancer, including breast cancer, and oncologists have long observed that cancer treatment seems to make it worse. Many people lose weight after a cancer diagnosis, but that trend is reversed in breast cancer patients who undergo chemotherapy. Studies have shown that while 50% of breast cancer patients are overweight or obese before their diagnosis, that rate goes up to 67% after treatment.

Changes to diet or exercise patterns during treatment are simply not significant enough to explain that difference, since they affect all patients who are treated for cancer, Walker notes.

"People tend to be a little less active during and after chemotherapy but they also tend to significantly reduce their caloric intake," he says. "There's something unique about this modulation of the gut microbiome for breast cancer patients who receive chemotherapy."

Walker notes it is not surprising that chemotherapy drugs have bacteria-killing effects, since some are derived from antibiotics and all are metabolized through the liver and then the gut.

"Breast cancer is an unparalleled success story in medicine. We see cure rates over 90% today, so survivorship is now equally important. We want to ensure that in survival, our patients aren't then dealing with the metabolic consequences of weight gain during treatment."

[ConservativeMind]

Although the write up does not address it, knowing that chemo changes your intestinal bacterial makeup, you could get your own feces saved before therapy, and transplant it back in, all with your doctor’s help.

Probiotics and fermented foods would additionally help, but they are only a subset of what you had.

[ConservativeMind]

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[entropy12]

Chemo extends life by as much as 3 years. Without chemo, my wife would be dead long ago. She will soon have survived 6 years after diagnosis of stage-4 cancer in lungs, brain & bones. Life expectancy after stage-4 is from 6 moths to maximum 5 years. She owes her survival to chemotherapy. Of course, there are horrible side effects, especially to the digestive tract from chemo. But one has to choose. Die sooner or tolerate side effects. She is now off chemo and will go on some brand-new drug very soon.

[ConservativeMind]

Excellent to hear! She is a trooper.

I hope this next drug can greatly reduce her cancer.

Be sure to check her type of cancer on the Medical Xpress search engine. You might identify something else that could help.

[cdpap]

Massive studies have shown that a four day almost total fast supervised by a doctor prior to chemo will limit damage caused to bodies own sysytems. Cancer cell are voracious and will continue to eat but after four days the bodies cells have stopped eating. Watch “the science of fasting”