Researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine studied the effects that foods can have on the uptake and elimination of drugs used for cancer treatment.
The researchers conducted new clinical trial found that drinking grapefruit juice lets patients derive the same benefits from low dose of an anticancer drug as they would get from more than three times as much of the drug by itself.
The combination could help patients avoid side effects associated with high doses of the drug and reduce the cost of the medication.
In the study, they found that eight ounces a day of grapefruit juice can slow the body’s metabolism of a drug called sirolimus, which has been approved for transplant patients but may also help many people with cancer.
Sirolimus was the first of a series of drugs, known as mTOR inhibitors, that were developed to prevent rejection of transplanted organs but that also have anti-cancer effects.
Patients who drank eight ounces a day of grapefruit juice increased their sirolimus levels by 350 percent. A drug called ketoconazole that also slows drug metabolism increased sirolimus levels by 500 percent.
Grapefruit juice pharmaceutical prowess stems from its ability to inhibit enzymes in the intestine that break down sirolimus and several other drugs.
The findings were published in August, 2012 issue of Clinical Cancer Research