Even though chemotherpay is one of the most popular ways to treat breast cancer, it also has downsides, such as a higher risk of side effects. 

Probiotics are among the emerging alternative supplements being studied for their potential benefit in cancer treatment. A new study published in the open-access journal Pharmacia explored the effects of multi-strain probiotics on chemotherapy-related side effects. 

You can read here the abstract of the study:

This study aimed to identify the effect of a 7-strain probiotics formulation on chemotherapy-related side effects, complete blood counts, blood biochemistry, and Karnofsky performance scores. All patients diagnosed with breast cancer who received chemotherapy at a hospital in Surabaya, Indonesia, were considered eligible to join the study. Before probiotic supplementation, the baseline values of the tested parameters were obtained and later compared with the values after 21–30 days of probiotic supplementation. Multi-strain probiotics supplementation could alleviate the fatigue and nausea symptoms in our patients. Significant improvements were observed after probiotic supplementation compared to before supplementation in the Karnofsky performance scores (median: 100 versus 90, respectively; p < 0.001) and blood urea nitrogen (11.6 mg/dL versus 10.05 mg/dL, respectively; p = 0.008). Non-significant differences were found for the complete blood counts, alanine aminotransferase, and serum creatinine. Our findings provide preliminary evidence about the potential role of multi-strain probiotics supplementation to alleviate chemotherapy-related side effects.

Original source:

Kirtishanti A, Wijono H, Kok T, Setiawan E, Tanggo VVCM, Zahara GS, Davina W, Presley B (2025) Effect of multi-strain probiotics supplementation on chemotherapy-related side effects among patients with breast cancer: A pilot trial. Pharmacia 72: 1-9. https://doi.org/10.3897/pharmacia.72.e144998