Oats are put to the test against cetuximab-type chemo side effects to see just how soothing and anti-inflammatory they can be.
Oatmeal Lotion for Chemotherapy-Induced Rash
4.6/5 - (29 votes)
Oatmeal has been used for centuries as a topical soothing agent on the skin to relieve itch and irritation in dermatology. Of course this is coming from Johnson & Johnson, which sells a brand of oatmeal lotion, but look, if it helps with dry skin or a bug bite, I can imagine it having some soothing quality–but this study shocked me.
There’s a class of chemo drugs, like cetuximab, that causes an awful rash. It’s bad enough you have some horrible cancer, but then to have a painful itchy rash on top of it? Various treatments have been tried and failed. There was no clear preventive or curative treatment for this eruption. Or is there?
The researchers had heard about this study, in which human skin fragments from plastic surgery were subjected to an inflammatory chemical, and adding an oatmeal extract appeared to help, so what do you have to lose? Of the ten patients with chemo rashes who they were able to get access to try some oatmeal lotion, six had a complete response, and four a partial response, giving an overall oatmeal response rate of 100%.
Doctors wrote in from around the world. Significant improvement in all patients? Seemed rather too good to be true, but out of desperation they tried it, and got the same astonishing results. Oatmeal; a simple topical agent producing such spectacular benefit where more complex therapies have failed. In an age when ever more expensive treatments are consistently being championed, it would be a great pity if this inexpensive, natural approach to relieving distressing symptoms were to be overlooked.
Ironically, two of the cancer cell lines found resistant in vitro to this kind of chemotherapy were found to be sensitive to avenanthramides, which are unique phytonutrients found in oats, suggesting that people should be applying oatmeal to their insides as well.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Katie Schloer.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- E S Kurtz, W Wallo. Colloidal oatmeal: history, chemistry and clinical properties. J Drugs Dermatol. 2007 Feb;6(2):167-70.
- D T Alexandrescu, J G Valliant, C A Dasanu. Effect of treatment with a colloidal oatmeal lotion on the acneform eruption induced by epidermal growth factor receptor and multiple tyrosine-kinase inhibitors. Clin Exp Dermatol. 2007 Jan;32(1):71-4.
- N Talsania, A Loffeld, S D Orpin. Colloidal oatmeal lotion is an effective treatment for pruritus caused by erlotinib. Clin Exp Dermatol. 2008 Jan;33(1):108.
- S Segaert, J Tabernero, O Chosidow, T Dirschka, J Elsner, L Mancini, T Maughan, J F Morere, A Santoro, A Sobrero, E Van Custem, A Layton. The management of skin reactions in cancer patients receiving epidermal growth factor receptor targeted therapies. J Dtsch Dermatol Ges. 2005 Aug;3(8):599-606.
- W Jacot, D Bessis, E Jorda, M Ychou, M Fabbro, J L Pujol, B Guillot. Acneiform eruption induced by epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors in patients with solid tumours. Br J Dermatol. 2004 Jul;151(1):238-41.
- T Trojani, S Napolitano, D Vitagliano, F Morgillo, A Capasso, V Sforza, A Nappi, D Ciardiello, F Ciardiello, E Martinelli. Primary and acquired resistance of colorectal cancer cells to anti-EGFR antibodies converge on MEK/ERK pathway activation and can be overcome by combined MEK/EGFR inhibition. Clin Cancer Res. 2014 Jul 15;20(14):3775-86.
- R Wild, K Fager, C Flefleh, D Kan, I Inigo, S Castaneda, F R Luo, A Camuso, K McGlichey, W C Rose. Cetuximab preclinical antitumor activity (monotherapy and combination based) is not predicted by relative total or activated epidermal growth factor receptor tumor expression levels. Mol Cancer Ther. 2006 Jan;5(1):104-13.
- W Guo, L Nie, D Wu, M L Wise, F W Collins, S N Meydani, M Meydani. Avenanthramides inhibit proliferation of human colon cancer cell lines in vitro. Nutr Cancer. 2010;62(8):1007-16.
- S Boisnic, M C Branchet-Gumila, C Coutanceau. Inhibitory effect of oatmeal extract oligomer on vasoactive intestinal peptide-induced inflammation in surviving human skin. Int J Tissue React. 2003;25(2):41-6.
- Minerva BMJ 2009;338:b504.
Oatmeal has been used for centuries as a topical soothing agent on the skin to relieve itch and irritation in dermatology. Of course this is coming from Johnson & Johnson, which sells a brand of oatmeal lotion, but look, if it helps with dry skin or a bug bite, I can imagine it having some soothing quality–but this study shocked me.
There’s a class of chemo drugs, like cetuximab, that causes an awful rash. It’s bad enough you have some horrible cancer, but then to have a painful itchy rash on top of it? Various treatments have been tried and failed. There was no clear preventive or curative treatment for this eruption. Or is there?
The researchers had heard about this study, in which human skin fragments from plastic surgery were subjected to an inflammatory chemical, and adding an oatmeal extract appeared to help, so what do you have to lose? Of the ten patients with chemo rashes who they were able to get access to try some oatmeal lotion, six had a complete response, and four a partial response, giving an overall oatmeal response rate of 100%.
Doctors wrote in from around the world. Significant improvement in all patients? Seemed rather too good to be true, but out of desperation they tried it, and got the same astonishing results. Oatmeal; a simple topical agent producing such spectacular benefit where more complex therapies have failed. In an age when ever more expensive treatments are consistently being championed, it would be a great pity if this inexpensive, natural approach to relieving distressing symptoms were to be overlooked.
Ironically, two of the cancer cell lines found resistant in vitro to this kind of chemotherapy were found to be sensitive to avenanthramides, which are unique phytonutrients found in oats, suggesting that people should be applying oatmeal to their insides as well.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Katie Schloer.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- E S Kurtz, W Wallo. Colloidal oatmeal: history, chemistry and clinical properties. J Drugs Dermatol. 2007 Feb;6(2):167-70.
- D T Alexandrescu, J G Valliant, C A Dasanu. Effect of treatment with a colloidal oatmeal lotion on the acneform eruption induced by epidermal growth factor receptor and multiple tyrosine-kinase inhibitors. Clin Exp Dermatol. 2007 Jan;32(1):71-4.
- N Talsania, A Loffeld, S D Orpin. Colloidal oatmeal lotion is an effective treatment for pruritus caused by erlotinib. Clin Exp Dermatol. 2008 Jan;33(1):108.
- S Segaert, J Tabernero, O Chosidow, T Dirschka, J Elsner, L Mancini, T Maughan, J F Morere, A Santoro, A Sobrero, E Van Custem, A Layton. The management of skin reactions in cancer patients receiving epidermal growth factor receptor targeted therapies. J Dtsch Dermatol Ges. 2005 Aug;3(8):599-606.
- W Jacot, D Bessis, E Jorda, M Ychou, M Fabbro, J L Pujol, B Guillot. Acneiform eruption induced by epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors in patients with solid tumours. Br J Dermatol. 2004 Jul;151(1):238-41.
- T Trojani, S Napolitano, D Vitagliano, F Morgillo, A Capasso, V Sforza, A Nappi, D Ciardiello, F Ciardiello, E Martinelli. Primary and acquired resistance of colorectal cancer cells to anti-EGFR antibodies converge on MEK/ERK pathway activation and can be overcome by combined MEK/EGFR inhibition. Clin Cancer Res. 2014 Jul 15;20(14):3775-86.
- R Wild, K Fager, C Flefleh, D Kan, I Inigo, S Castaneda, F R Luo, A Camuso, K McGlichey, W C Rose. Cetuximab preclinical antitumor activity (monotherapy and combination based) is not predicted by relative total or activated epidermal growth factor receptor tumor expression levels. Mol Cancer Ther. 2006 Jan;5(1):104-13.
- W Guo, L Nie, D Wu, M L Wise, F W Collins, S N Meydani, M Meydani. Avenanthramides inhibit proliferation of human colon cancer cell lines in vitro. Nutr Cancer. 2010;62(8):1007-16.
- S Boisnic, M C Branchet-Gumila, C Coutanceau. Inhibitory effect of oatmeal extract oligomer on vasoactive intestinal peptide-induced inflammation in surviving human skin. Int J Tissue React. 2003;25(2):41-6.
- Minerva BMJ 2009;338:b504.
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Title
Oatmeal Lotion for Chemotherapy-Induced Rash
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
Normally I wouldn’t make a whole video for such a rare use, but I was so impressed with the results I figured that if I could help even one person in this situation, it would be worth it. Reminds me of my videos Treating Gorlin Syndrome With Green Tea and Topical Application of Turmeric Curcumin for Cancer.
If oatmeal is so powerful that it can clear up some of the ravages of chemotherapy when just applied to the skin, what might it do if we actually ate it? That’s the subject of my next video, Can Oatmeal Help Fatty Liver Disease?
Cetuximab is often given for metastatic colorectal cancer. Better to try to prevent the disease in the first place:
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