Soy and Emulsion after gastrointestinal cancer

Posted by Chantel M. Contributed by US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health

In a study of "Randomized clinical trial of intravenous soybean oil alone versus soybean oil plus fish oil emulsion after gastrointestinal cancer surgery" by Jiang ZM, Wilmore DW, Wang XR, Wei JM, Zhang ZT, Gu ZY, Wang S, Han SM, Jiang H, Yu K., posted in US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, researchers found that Baseline data were comparable in the two groups. There were fewer infectious complications (four versus 12 on day 8; P = 0.066), systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) was significantly less common (four versus 13; P = 0.039) and hospital stay was significantly shorter (mean(s.d.) 15(5) versus 17(8) days; P = 0.041) in the treatment group. Total postoperative medical costs were comparable in the two groups (mean(s.d.) US $ 1269(254) and 1302(324) in treatment and control groups respectively; P = 0.424). The median (interquartile range) difference in CD4/CD8 between days 1 and 8 after surgery was + 0.30 (0.06 to 0.79) in patients receiving fish oil and + 0.20 (-0.19 to 0.55) in controls (P = 0.021). No severe adverse events occurred in either group.