Icecream offers relief during chemo

Clinical trials have been started in New Zealand to test a Fonterra icecream claimed to prevent cancer patients suffering diarrhoea from their chemotherapy treatment.

Promoted as a "medical food", ReCharge is a step up from the traditional panacea of icecream for children after tonsil operations.

Animal studies have indicated that milkfat and another bioactive milk fraction, lactoferrin - which contains iron - can protect the lining of the intestine.

About 14,000 tonnes of milk has to be processed to produce one tonne of lactoferrin.

The icecream, in Phase 2 clinical trials, may also reduce weight loss and damage to the immune system during chemotherapy.

Fonterra chief technology officer Jeremy Hill said the supplement had been developed by dairy researchers in Palmerston North working with experts in Fonterra's Tip Top icecream firm and medical experts at the University of Auckland. "It was a tremendous technical challenge."

Researchers worked with Tip Top to incorporate a specific type of milkfat and dairy protein into a palatable icecream.

The dairy components were screened for health effects by Associate Professor Geoff Krissansen, of Fonterra's LactoPharma joint venture with Auckland University, which used $2 million in taxpayer funding.

"Earlier trials in the laboratory found that weight loss and damage to the gut lining were significantly reduced by the active ingredients," Professor Krissansen said.

"There were also marked improvements to the immune system and blood markers."

The icecream is being tested at oncology centres in Whangarei, Auckland, Waikato, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill.

About 10 patients have already signed up for a daily regime that includes eating a 100g tub of strawberry icecream.

The trial is blind and randomised, which means the patients and their doctors will not know if they are being given the "medical" icecream or normal strawberry icecream.

Cancer Trials NZ has called for a further 190 volunteers to road-test the dietary supplement.

- NZPA