A new clinical trial investigated the effect of a popular botanical on the development of chemotherapy-induced liver inflammation in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Leukemia is a cancer in the bone marrow that affects the white blood cells. ALL accounts for 65 percent of the acute leukemias in children.
In this new study, children with ALL undergoing chemotherapy were supplemented with milk thistle or placebo for 28 days. Liver enzymes were measured including amino alanine transferase (ALT), aspartate amino transferase (AST) or total bilirubin to evaluate chemotherapy-induced liver inflammation.
The results of the study did not show any changes in liver enzymes between the groups that received milk thistle or placebo after 28 days of supplementation. However, after 56 days, the group receiving the milk thistle has a significant decrease in the levels of AST and a trend toward lower levels of ALT. In addition, fewer subjects in the group supplemented with milk thistle required a reduction in the chemotherapy (61 percent) compared to the subjects receiving placebo (72 percent). The researchers also showed that there was no adverse interaction between the milk thistle and the chemotherapy agents vincristine and L-asparaginase. In fact, there was a modest synergistic affect noted between milk thistle and vincristine.
The study authors concluded, “In children with ALL and liver toxicity, milk thistle was associated with a trend toward significant reductions in liver toxicity. Milk thistle did not antagonize the effects of chemotherapy agents used for the treatment of ALL. Future study is needed to determine the most effective dose and duration of MT and its effect on hepatotoxicity and leukemia-free survival.”
Reference:
Ladas EJ, Kroll DJ, Oberlies NH, Cheng B, Ndao DH, Rheingold SR, Kelly KM.
A randomized, controlled, double-blind, pilot study of milk thistle for the treatment of hepatotoxicity in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Cancer. 2010 Jan 15;116(2):506-13.