LOS ANGELES, May 15, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Household ginger and a new drug
called casopitant mesylate can reduce the nausea and vomiting caused by
chemotherapy, U.S. researchers said.
Adding about a half-teaspoon of ground ginger to food in the days before and
after chemotherapy reduced grueling side effects for many of the 644 patients in
a large, random, clinical study, said Julie L. Ryan, lead author of the study at
the University of Rochester Medical Center.
Ginger has a "potent anti-inflammatory effect in the gut," Ryan told the Los
Angeles Times in a story published Friday.
In a separate study of 810 patients, casopitant mesylate proved effective alone
and in combination with standard anti-nausea drugs dexamethasone and
ondansetron, said Dr. Steven Grunberg, a researcher at the University of
Vermont.
"Chemotherapy has come to be the thing cancer patients fear the most," Grunberg
said. "We've made a huge amount of progress, but we haven't completely solved
the problem."
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Copyright 2009 by United Press International