Sakamoto_2001_Chemotherapy_47_444

We have previously reported that long-term treatment with clarithromycin CAM increased the median survival of patients with non-small cell lung cancer and improved various clinical parameters in these patients In the present study CAM was administered to 33 patients with unresectable primary non-small cell lung cancer who had received chemotherapy radiotherapy or both basic cancer therapy Patients with clinical backgrounds matched to the CAM group who did not receive CAM treatment were included into this study as a control group non-CAM group CAM treatment was initiated 4 weeks after the basic cancer therapy The non-CAM group did not receive a placebo Before and after the 3-month treatment with CAM body weight serum levels of interleukin-6 IL-6 a cytokine which together with TNF-alpha plays a crucial role in the development of cancer cachexia total protein albumin cholinesterase and hemoglobin were measured for the evaluation of the patients clinical status There were no statistically significant differences in serum levels of IL-6 between the CAM group before the treatment and the non-CAM group After 3 months of CAM treatment serum levels of IL-6 significantly decreased In contrast body weight cholinesterase and hemoglobin increased to a significant extent Among these four parameters however the decrease in serum IL-6 levels was only statistically correlated with the increase in body weight but not with that in other parameters Furthermore CAM-treated patients whose serum IL-6 levels were decreased after 3 months of treatment survived longer there was a statistically significant correlation between the decrease in serum IL-6 and survival time In contrast in the non-CAM group these parameters did not change significantly during the study These results suggest that CAM may reduce the progression of cancer-associated cachexia