There is a lot of confusion and doubt about whether fucoidan can be taken during cancer treatment.  In my opinion, it is indeed better to take fucoidan during cancer treatment for speedy recovery without complications. Also, I can give you several reasons to help you understand it. In order to that, I will be dividing them into several blogs and explain each of them for more fundamental understanding.

Firstly, in this article, I am going to discuss one of the reasons and share how fucoidan reduces the side effects of toxic chemo-drugs during the cancer treatment of chemotherapy.

According to Hsien-Yeh Hsu et al., “Clinical applications of fucoidan in translational for adjuvant cancer therapy,” Their research showed that fucoidan not only reduced the toxicity but also enhanced the effects of chemo-drugs. There was also a proven example of breast cancer patients treated with the combination therapy that could receive prolonged chemotherapy time without any signs of fatigue and had a more favorable prognosis. For instance, combined treatment with fucoidan from Mozuku seaweed and chemotherapeutic agents, such as tamoxifen, cisplatin, and paclitaxel, enhance anti-cancer activities like inhibition of cell growth.

Inhibition of lung cancer in vivo and in vitro by fucoidan was examined. The examination showed that cytotoxic effects of fucoidan combined with cisplatin on mouse lung carcinoma cells. Fucoidan improves cell apoptosis through the induction of caspase-3 also PARP (aid in repairing damaged DNA) activation that enhances cisplatin-induced toxicity in the human lung cancer cell.

Moreover, in human clinical studies in Taiwan, combined cisplatin and fucoidan treatment effectively increased the survival rate of patients with lung cancer. The results indicated that fucoidan exerts a more significant anti-tumor effect as an adjuvant, second-line anti-cancer diet supplement, and may also regulate immune functions. At the same time, cisplatin remains a first-line anti-cancer drug for chemotherapy in clinical human lung cancer treatment.

So conclusions suggested that fucoidan reduces fatigue. At the same time, fucoidan improves anti-cancer chemo-drugs effects, which means patients’ survival rate would increase. Taking these extensive studies and results into consideration, I would suggest it is better to use fucoidan during cancer treatment.

In my next blog, I will share about “If Fucoidan can be used during radiation therapy.”