10/12/2026
Great post shared by Paul Wischmeyer - A new Nature Cancer trial showed 15 of 16 patients had tumor shrinkage with oral glutamine therapy - Here’s why this caught my attention after 20 years researching glutamine.
This Nature Cancer phase 1 trial tested clinical-grade L-glutamine alongside gemcitabine + nab-paclitaxel in 16 patients with previously untreated advanced pancreatic cancer.
The findings:
🔹 15/16 (94%) had SOME tumor shrinkage.
🔹 7/16 (44%) had an objective response: 2 complete and 5 partial responses.
🔹 Median progression-free survival: 8.5 months.
🔹 Median overall survival: 22 months.
Patients received up to 30 g/day of L-glutamine. It was generally well tolerated; most serious treatment-related side effects were attributed to chemotherapy.
Important: 94% with some shrinkage does NOT mean a 94% objective response rate—or a cure. A complete response on imaging does not prove cancer is permanently gone.
With only 16 patients and NO randomized control group, this study cannot establish whether glutamine improves outcomes beyond chemotherapy alone. Larger randomized trials are essential.
Why does this inspire me?
Our 2003 review, “Prevention of chemotherapy and radiation toxicity with glutamine,” explored its potential to protect patients from treatment-related injury.
Other studies found:
• Shorter, less severe chemotherapy-related mouth sores (PMID: 9762946).
• Improved gut barrier function without a detected adverse effect on chemotherapy’s tumor response in a breast cancer trial (PMID: 17168431).
• Slower melanoma growth and improved response to targeted therapy in MICE—not proof of benefit in people (PMID: 32620791).
Benefits cannot be assumed across cancers or treatments. Don’t add glutamine during cancer therapy without your oncology team.
I’m inspired to see this next chapter unfold. Hope deserves rigorous science.
👇 What would you want the next glutamine trial to study and answer?
New trial: Gong et al. Nature Cancer, 2026.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42675216/
Our review:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14585260/
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