Abstract
Introduction Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed malignancy in women, and comorbidities like hypertension and obesity diminish their quality of life and negatively affect their response to chemotherapy. Furthermore, inulin supplementation is associated with the reduction of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) risk. Objective To determine whether inulin supplementation prevents the elevation of blood pressure in women with breast cancer undergoing neoadjuvant therapy with cyclophosphamide and doxorubicin. Methods This was a randomized, double-blind placebo controlled trial which included women with early-stage breast cancer undergoing neoadjuvant therapy (n=38). Patients were randomly assigned to participate in two different groups to receive either 15 g of inulin or 15 g of placebo (maltodextrin) for 21 days. Body composition and blood pressure were evaluated before and after the supplementation period. Results Women in the inulin group showed a lower systolic blood pressure (SBP) after the supplementation (-4.21 mmHg, p<0.001). However, SBP increased in the placebo supplemented group. Diastolic blood pressure (DBP) nonsignificantly decreased in the inulin group. Inulin supplementation also increased BMI (p<0.001) but reduced BFP (p=0.288). Furthermore, confounding variables, such as BMI, baseline fasting glucose, age, menopause status, vomiting, constipation, and chronic medication did not have a statistical influence over the inulin effect on SBP. Conclusion Inulin supplementation reduces SBP and prevents increases in DBP in women with breast cancer. This could be an innovative nutraceutical approach to prevent hypertension present in women with this type of cancer at an early stage and may improve the quality of life of the patients and their prognostic development through chemotherapy. Trial Registration Number This trial is registered with ACTRN12616001532493.
Highlights
Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed malignancy in women, and comorbidities like hypertension and obesity diminish their quality of life and negatively affect their response to chemotherapy
Baseline characteristics of women are described in Table 1; there were no significant differences between the placebo and the inulin groups
systolic blood pressure (SBP) in the inulin group was not affected by baseline blood glucose according to the Mantel-Haenszel test (p=0.646)
Summary
Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed malignancy in women, and comorbidities like hypertension and obesity diminish their quality of life and negatively affect their response to chemotherapy. Inulin supplementation reduces SBP and prevents increases in DBP in women with breast cancer This could be an innovative nutraceutical approach to prevent hypertension present in women with this type of cancer at an early stage and may improve the quality of life of the patients and their prognostic development through chemotherapy. Women with breast cancer frequently have comorbidities, such as hypertension and other conditions related to body composition, which diminish their quality of life and negatively affect the response to treatment. Weight gain is common in patients with breast cancer, especially in women receiving adjuvant chemotherapy; the magnitude of this effect is variable and could be related to the types of chemotherapeutic agents, doses, duration of the treatment, and menopausal state [7]
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