• Gil Bar-Sela, Mira Wollner, Liat Hammer, Abed Agbarya, Elizabeth Dudnik, and Nissim Haim.
• Division of Oncology, Rambam Health Care Campus, and Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. g_barsela@rambam.health.gov.il
• Eur. J. Cancer. 2013 Mar 1; 49 (5): 1058-64.

IntroductionMistletoe preparations, such as iscador, are common complementary medications. This randomised phase II study of iscador combined with carboplatin-containing regimens was conducted in chemotherapy-naïve advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients to assess its influence on chemotherapy-related side-effects and QoL.MethodsPatients with advanced NSCLC were randomised to receive chemotherapy alone or chemotherapy plus iscador thrice weekly until tumour progression. Chemotherapy consisted of 21-day cycles of carboplatin combined with gemcitabine or pemetrexed.ResultsSeventy-two patients (control: 39; iscador: 33) were enrolled in the study. Most (65%) were in stage IV, and 62% had squamous histology. Median overall survival in both groups was 11 months. Median TTP was 4.8 months for the controls and 6 months in the iscador arm (p=NS). Differences in grade 3-4 haematological toxicity were not significant but more control patients had chemotherapy dose reductions (44% versus 13%, p=0.005), grade 3-4 non-haematological toxicities (41% versus 16%, p=0.043) and hospitalisations (54% versus 24%, p=0.016).ConclusionNo effect of iscador could be found on quality of life or total adverse events. Nevertheless, chemotherapy dose reductions, severe non-haematological side-effects and hospitalisations were less frequent in patients treated with iscador, warranting further investigation of iscador as a modifier of chemotherapy-related toxicity.Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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