Efficacy and Safety of Orally Administered Lentinula edodes Mycelia Extract for Patients Undergoing Cancer Chemotherapy: A Pilot Study

Authors: Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi, Eiji Miyahara, and Jun Hihara

Journal: The American Journal of Chinese Medicine

Study Design: 8-week single-group open study

Participants: 7 patients undergoing chemotherapy (3 for breast cancer, 2 for gastrointestinal cancer, 2 for prevention of gastrointestinal cancer recurrence)

Intervention: The patients received two courses of chemotherapy:

• First course: Chemotherapy alone
• Second course: Chemotherapy plus concomitant administration of Lentinula edodes mycelia extract (L.E.M.) at a dose of 1800 mg/day for four weeks.

Outcome Measures:

• Tumor responses and adverse events
• Quality of life (QOL)
• Immune function (serum prostaglandin E2 [PGE2] and immunosuppressive acidic protein [IAP] levels, CD4/IL-4/IFN- or CD3/CD161/CD8/perforin-lymphocyte subsets, NK cell activity, LAK cell activity, PHA blastogenesis)
• Blood corpuscle and standard biochemical tests

Summary: The study investigated the safety and efficacy of orally administered L.E.M. in patients undergoing cancer chemotherapy. The results showed that L.E.M. was safe and well-tolerated, with no adverse events attributed to its ingestion. The QOL scores improved significantly after the second course of chemotherapy with concomitant L.E.M. administration, particularly in the functional and physical domains. The immune function also showed improvement, with increased LAK and NK cell activities and decreased IAP levels. The study concluded that L.E.M. ingestion is safe and may improve QOL and immune function in patients undergoing chemotherapy.