Longitudinal Changes in Sleep: Associations with Shifts in Circulating Cytokines and Emotional Distress in a Cancer Survivor Population

Integrative Oncology Approaches to Reduce Recurrence of Disease and Improve Survival

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

After a cancer diagnosis, patients ask what they can do in addition to the recommended treatments to increase their survival. Many turn to integrative medicine modalities and lifestyle changes to improve their chances of survival. Numerous studies have demonstrated that lifestyle changes can significantly improve survival rates for cancer patients. Less support exists for the use of natural products or supplements to improve cancer survival. In this manuscript, we review key findings and evidence in the areas of healthy eating habits, physical activity, stress management and social support, and sleep quality, as well as natural products and supplements as they relate to the cancer recurrence and survival.

RECENT FINDINGS

While more research is needed to fully understand the mechanisms underlying the associations between lifestyle changes and cancer survival, findings suggest that lifestyle modifications in the areas of diet, physical activity, stress management and social support, and sleep quality improve clinical cancer outcomes. This is especially true for programs that modify more than one lifestyle habit. To date, outside of supplementing with vitamin D to maintain adequate levels, conflicting conclusion within the research remain regarding the efficacy of using natural products or supplement to improve cancer recurrence of disease or cancer survival. A call for further research is warranted. Lifestyle screening and counseling should be incorporated into cancer treatment plans to help improve patient outcomes. While the scientific community strives for the pursuit of high-quality research on natural products to enhance cancer survival, transparency, dialogue, and psychological safety between patients and clinicians must continue to be emphasized. Proactive inquiry by clinicians regarding patients' supplement use will allow for an informed discussion of the benefits and risks of natural products and supplements, as well as a re-emphasis of the evidence supporting diet and other lifestyle habits to increase survival.

Opposing inflammatory biomarker responses to sleep disruption in cancer patients before and during oncological therapy

Background

Sleep disruption is known to be highly prevalent in cancer patients, aggravated during oncological treatment and closely associated with reduced quality of life, therapeutic outcome and survival. Inflammatory factors are associated with sleep disruption in healthy individuals and cancer patients, but heterogeneity and robustness of inflammatory factors associated with sleep disruption and how these are affected by oncological therapy remain poorly understood. Furthermore, due to the complex crosstalk between sleep-, and therapy-associated factors, including inflammatory factors, there are currently no established biomarkers for predicting sleep disruption in patients undergoing oncological therapy.

Methods

We performed a broad screen of circulating biomarkers with immune-modulating or endocrine functions and coupled these to self-reported sleep quality using the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) sleep scale. Ninety cancer patients with gastrointestinal, urothelial, breast, brain and tonsillar cancers, aged between 32 and 86 years, and scheduled for adjuvant or palliative oncological therapy were included. Of these, 71 patients were evaluable. Data was collected immediately before and again 3 months after onset of oncological therapy.

Results

Seventeen among a total of 45 investigated plasma proteins were found to be suppressed in cancer patients exhibiting sleep disruption prior to treatment onset, but this association was lost following the first treatment cycle. Patients whose sleep quality was reduced during the treatment period exhibited significantly increased plasma levels of six pro-inflammatory biomarkers (IL-2, IL-6, IL-12, TNF-a, IFN-g, and GM-CSF) 3 months after the start of treatment, whereas biomarkers with anti-inflammatory, growth factor, immune-modulatory, or chemokine functions were unchanged.

Conclusion

Our work suggests that biomarkers of sleep quality are not valid for cancer patients undergoing oncological therapy if analyzed only at a single timepoint. On the other hand, therapy-associated increases in circulating inflammatory biomarkers are closely coupled to reduced sleep quality in cancer patients. These findings indicate a need for testing of inflammatory and other biomarkers as well as sleep quality at multiple times during the patient treatment and care process.

Exploring the links among inflammation and gut microbiome with psychoneurological symptoms and gastrointestinal toxicities in gynecologic cancers: a systematic review

INTRODUCTION

Emerging evidence highlights the roles the gut microbiome and the immune system, integral parts of the gut-brain axis, play in developing various symptoms in cancer patients. The purpose of this systematic review was to describe the roles of inflammatory markers and the gut microbiome, as well as to describe their associations with psychoneurological symptoms and gastrointestinal toxicities in women with gynecologic cancers.

METHODS

A comprehensive literature search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science from January 2000 to February 2021. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines were utilized to screen the found articles. The quality of the included studies was assessed using the Mixed Method Assessment Tool. In the included studies, various inflammatory markers and gut microbiome diversity and patterns were measured.

RESULTS

Sixteen studies met the eligibility criteria and were included in this systematic review. While there were discrepancies in the associations between various inflammatory markers and symptoms, most of the studies showed positive correlations between interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and cancer-related psychoneurological symptoms and gastrointestinal toxicities in gynecologic cancer patients. Although there was no consensus in alpha diversity, studies showed significant dissimilarity in the microbial communities (beta diversity) in patients with gastrointestinal toxicities compared with patients without symptoms or healthy controls. Studies also reported inconsistent findings in the abundance of bacteria at different taxonomic levels. Radiation enteritis-derived microbiota could stimulate TNF-α and interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β) secretion.

CONCLUSIONS

Alteration of inflammatory markers, the gut microbiome, and their associations show emerging evidence in the development of psychoneurological symptoms and gastrointestinal toxicities in women with gynecologic cancers. More studies on the interactions between the immune system and the gut microbiome, two integral parts of the gut-brain axis, are required to shed light on the roles they play in symptom development.

Sleep disturbance in cancer patients referred to an ambulatory integrative oncology consultation

BACKGROUND

Sleep disturbance (SD) is highly prevalent in oncology and negatively affects quality of life and mortality. Evidence supports the use of integrative oncology (IO) practices to treat SD, but there is limited published data on the characteristics of SD and factors associated with SD in IO. We determined the prevalence, severity, and factors associated with SD among cancer patients seen in an ambulatory IO consultation.

METHODS

Patients with cancer referred for initial outpatient IO consultation in 2017 were eligible. Patient demographics, clinical characteristics, and patient-reported outcomes (Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS), Measure Yourself Concerns and Wellbeing (MYCaW), PROMIS-10) were retrospectively reviewed.

RESULTS

One thousand five hundred twenty patients were included in the analysis. The majority (70%) were women with breast cancer (42%). Nine hundred seventy-one (64%) patients reported significant SD with ESAS Sleep ≥ 4, yet only 11% expressed poor sleep as their primary or secondary concern for the IO consultation. The median SD (IQR) was 5 (3,7). ESAS scores for fatigue (adjusted OR 1.16; CI 1.07-1.26, p < 0.001), pain (adjusted OR 1.07; CI 1.00-1.15, p < 0.05), hot flashes (adjusted OR 1.14; CI 1.07-1.22, p < 0.001), well-being (adjusted OR 1.33; CI 1.22-1.46, p < 0.001), and psychological distress score (anxiety and depression) (adjusted OR 1.16; CI 1.01-1.11, p < 0.01) were independently associated with SD in multivariate analysis. Acupuncture was the most frequent intervention prescribed, 175 (35%). Other modalities included oncology massage (15%), health psychology (5%), and meditation (1%).

CONCLUSIONS

Although 64% of patients seeking IO consultation reported clinically significant SD, only 11% were seeking integrative approaches for managing SD. ESAS fatigue, hot flashes, well-being, and psychological symptoms were significantly associated with SD.