CÚRCUMA PARA A PREVENÇÃO DA SÍNDROME DE PÉ DE MÃO INDUZIDA POR CAPECITABINA: ESTUDO PILOTO

Introduction: Hand-foot Syndrome (HFS) is common and frequently occurs in the first cycle of treatment in approximately 40 to 50% of patients who receive capecitabine. Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is a plant used by Ayurvedic medicine with clinical activity in various inflammatory conditions. Our objective was to evaluate if turmeric was active for the prevention of capecitabine-induced HFS. OBJECT AND METHODS We included patients older than 18 years of age without previous exposure to capecitabine who were scheduled to receive this medication. Before starting treatment, after three weeks and at the end of six weeks, we evaluated dermatologic toxicity, conducted quality of life questionnaires (EORTC-QLQC30 and DLQI) and collected serum inflammatory biomarkers (IL-6, TNF-α, CRP, and albumin). We administered turmeric at a dose of 4 g/day (2 pills 12 hours apart) starting at the beginning of capecitabine treatment and lasting six weeks. We included 40 patients whose mean age was 62 years. Most were female (80%), 52% had breast cancer, and 47.5% had GI tumors. RESULTS After the first cycle of capecitabine treatment, we observed that a total of 11 of 40 patients developed HFS (27.5%; 95% CI: 15 42%), whereas four patients developed HFS equal or superior to grade 2 (10%; 95% CI: 3.3 23%). CONCLUSION We did not find any correlations between the aforementioned inflammatory markers tested with HFS. We show that turmeric can be combined with capecitabine and seems to produce a lower rate of HFS, especially grade 2 or higher. These findings need to be reproduced in larger controlled studies. Keywords: Turmeric. Capecitabine. Hand Foot Syndrome. The authorsdeclarenoconflicts of interest.The authors alone are responsible for the content andwriting of the article.