Dr Fran Boyle, Ms Robyn Monk, Ms Susan Murphy-Poulton

Many of the drugs we use to treat cancer have unwanted side-effects. In some cases the severity of these side-effects requires the dose of the chemotherapeutic drug to be reduced which in turn reduces the effectiveness of the drug against the cancer.

Some of our most effective anti-cancer drugs also cause damage to the peripheral nerves (peripheral neuropathy). Since nerve cells have a very different biology to most cancer cells it was hypothesised that there may be a way of protecting nerve cells from the effects of these chemotherapeutic drugs without reducing the drug's effectiveness against their target cancer cells. A survey of the literature identified several compounds as possible nerve cell protectants. These were tested in cell cultures to determine if they also protected a broad variety of cancer cells against anti-cancer drugs.

The food additive monosodiumglutamate or MSG was found to be the most active at protecting nerve cells but not cancer cells. Studies in laboratoy animals confirmed these findings.

Based on these laboratory findings our Translational Research Unit is organising a clinical trial to assess the potential of MSG. The aim is to determine the effectiveness of MSG in reducing peripheral neuropathy during chemotherapy and whether MSG interferes with the effectiveness of the chemotherapy against the cancer.