Abstracts
Simple detection of gut damage associated with chemotherapy and the screening of potential treatments
Dr Katie Tooley
PhD awarded May 2007 - University of Adelaide,
Discipline of Physiology
Supervised through Gastroenterology, CYWHS
Mucositis is a common side-effect of chemotherapy in cancer patients, characterised by the development of ulcers to the lining of the gut. Patients experience symptoms such as abdominal pain, bloating and diarrhoea. Mucositis is one of the major rate-limiting causes for postponing treatment and reducing chemotherapy dose. Due to the inaccessibility of the intestine, assessing small intestinal function has proved very difficult, which in turn has hindered the development and application of treatments for mucositis. Recently our laboratory has developed a non-invasive breath test, the 13C-sucrose breath test (SBT), which can detect damage to the small intestine caused by chemotherapy. Detection occurs because chemotherapy often causes a decrease in a sugar splitting enzyme, sucrase, in the intestine, and the SBT measures these changes after the individual has consumed a drink containing sucrose. This study demonstrated that the non-invasive SBT detected mucositis in rats receiving different types of chemotherapy and directly relates to small intestinal function/health. Additionally, the SBT was shown to be able to monitor the effects of a probiotic (Streptococcus thermophilus) in reducing chemotherapy-induced damage. Finally, the SBT was successfully applied in paediatric cancer patients, where the SBT detected small intestinal damage in patients who developed oral mucositis in a cycle of chemotherapy. This is the first successful non-invasive biomarker that provides information on the functional health of the small intestine, and can be applied simply and non-invasively in animals and humans. In the future, the SBT can be used to monitor gut health in response to chemotherapy and the effectiveness of novel anti-mucositis treatments.
