Can Glutamine Help Treat Pancreatic Cancer?

A study published in Nature Cancer investigated whether L-glutamine could complement chemotherapy used to treat advanced pancreatic cancer. The results were promising, although the study was small and still at an early stage.

Pancreatic cancer is among the most difficult cancers to treat, particularly when the disease has spread to other organs. In addition to the cancer itself, many patients experience weight loss, difficulty digesting and absorbing nutrients, and changes in intestinal function as the disease progresses and treatment continues.

With this in mind, a group of researchers tested glutamine in combination with chemotherapy in 16 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. The aim was to assess the potential benefits of the combination, both in terms of tumor response and intestinal health, nutrient absorption, and inflammation.

However, these positive results do not mean that glutamine supplementation should be considered a treatment. They show that the combination produced results promising enough to justify larger and more rigorous studies.

In This Article

The Functions of Glutamine in the Body

Glutamine is an amino acid produced by the body and also obtained through food. In the intestine, it serves as a source of energy for the cells lining the intestinal tract and helps support the renewal of this tissue.

It also helps maintain the intestinal barrier, regulating the passage of substances from the inside of the intestine into the bloodstream. In addition, glutamine may help these cells withstand metabolic stress and limit inflammatory processes.

During periods of intense metabolic stress, the amount of glutamine available in the body can decrease. For this reason, glutamine supplementation has been studied in several conditions associated with inflammation and impaired intestinal function.

In pancreatic cancer, these functions are relevant because the disease and its treatment can cause digestive problems, difficulty absorbing nutrients, and weight loss.

Can Glutamine Help Treat Pancreatic Cancer?

When pancreatic cancer is advanced, it is extremely difficult to treat. In the study published in Nature Cancer, advanced disease included cases in which the cancer had spread to other parts of the body or could no longer be removed through surgery.

At this stage, treatment generally aims to control the disease and prolong survival, but the available options remain limited in their effectiveness.

The Nature Cancer study investigated whether L-glutamine could be added to chemotherapy to potentially improve these outcomes. The 16 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer received glutamine together with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel.

During follow-up, half of the patients went at least 8.5 months without the cancer growing or progressing. In terms of overall survival, half lived for more than 22 months after starting treatment.

These results may not seem particularly strong at first, but given how aggressive pancreatic cancer can be, the findings are considered promising.

However, these numbers do not show that glutamine was responsible for the responses observed. All participants received glutamine together with chemotherapy, and there was no group receiving gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel alone for comparison.

Effects on Systemic Inflammation

Systemic inflammation is an inflammatory response that affects the body as a whole rather than being limited to a specific tissue or organ. In cancer, it can be related both to the disease itself and to changes caused by the tumor and its treatment.

In the study, patients who responded to treatment had lower levels of CCL11 and IL-33, two molecules involved in the inflammatory response.

The reduction in these markers suggests lower activation of certain inflammatory processes among patients who responded to treatment.

Malabsorption and Cachexia

Pancreatic cancer and chemotherapy can interfere with digestion and nutrient absorption, contributing to weight loss and cachexia.

Cachexia is a syndrome involving progressive loss of weight and muscle mass that cannot be explained simply by eating less and can be difficult to reverse.

As a result, even when a person is able to eat, the body may not adequately absorb and use proteins, fats, vitamins, and other nutrients. This can contribute to weight loss, weakness, and nutritional deficiencies.

Most participants in the study already showed signs of cachexia when the research began. During treatment, however, about half were able to maintain their body weight, a finding the researchers considered consistent with a possible effect against disease-related weight loss.

These findings suggest that the potential effects of glutamine may not be limited to the tumor itself, but could also involve the body's ability to maintain nutritional status during treatment.

What Do the Results Mean?

The study's findings are promising, but they are not enough to establish that glutamine improves pancreatic cancer treatment. The study involved only 16 patients and did not compare the combination with chemotherapy alone.

This means it is not possible to determine how much of the observed results can be attributed to glutamine and how much may be explained by the chemotherapy itself or by characteristics of the patients included in the study.

For now, the research shows that the combination deserves further investigation in larger studies with a comparison group. Only studies designed this way can determine whether glutamine actually provides an additional benefit when added to standard treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer.

References ▼

• Nature Cancer – l-Glutamine in combination with first-line gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel in advanced pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: an open-label, single-arm, phase 1 GlutaPanc trial
• International journal of molecular sciences – The Roles of Glutamine in the Intestine and Its Implication in Intestinal Diseases
• Amino acids – A systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials on the effects of glutamine supplementation on gut permeability in adults