Quality of Life of Patients with Advanced Pancreatic Cancer

Quality of Life of Patients with Advanced Pancreatic Cancer During Treatment with Mistletoe: A Randomized Controlled Trial

In this randomized Phase III trial, 220 patients with locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer—who were not receiving any further oncologic treatment—were randomly assigned to receive either best supportive care alone or best supportive care plus escalating-dose subcutaneous mistletoe extract injections, administered three times per week. The trial was conducted from 2009-2010 and was halted early due to interim findings favoring mistletoe in overall survival.
Quality of life was assessed using the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire. Among evaluable participants (96 in the mistletoe group and 72 controls), those receiving mistletoe demonstrated significant and clinically relevant improvements across all six functional scales and 7 of 9 symptom scales. Notable improvements included reduced pain (–29 to –17 points), fatigue (–36.1 to –25.0), appetite loss (–51 to –36.7), and insomnia (–45.8 to –28.6).
Body weight trends also diverged favorably. Mistletoe-treated patients gained an average of 5.3% of their baseline weight, while controls lost 3.2%; a statistically significant difference of 8.5%.
In summary, the given trial provides considerable evidence in support of mistletoe extract, suggesting that—when used alongside best supportive care—it can significantly improve overall quality of life and help maintain (or even increase) body weight in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.

References

Tröger W, Galun D, Reif M, Schumann A, Stanković N, Milićević M. Quality of life of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer during treatment with mistletoe: a randomized controlled trial. Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2014;111(29-30):493‐502.

By Dr. Sydney Moffat, ND and Dr. Gurdev Parmar, ND, FABNO(USA)