Docetaxel chemo and diet supplements

For the last week or two I've been on this kick about how chemotherapy may interact with diet supplements, even as basic as vitamin C. I've finally found my first bit of "evidence," though it claims itself to be preliminary. It's a review article published in 2010. They found 24 original studies published on the subject of docetaxel (a common taxane chemotherapy) and supplement interactions. I'll post their conclusions after the jump.
 I'll do this by bullet point since I can't make a table, in the format NAME--RECOMMENDATION

This first series are a list of supplements and herbs that researchers theorized might have negative interaction affects

•  St John's wort--avoid
• Grapefruit--avoid
• Garlic--avoid
• Feverfew--potential benefit
• Glutamine--avoid

 Here's the list of interactions found by research studies

• Vitamin B6--potential benefit
• L-Glutamine--potential benefit
• Gamma-Linolenic acid (fatty acids)--potential benefit
• FIsh oil--potential benefit
• Vitamin D--potential benefit
• beta-Elemene (Chinese herb, Zedoary)--potential benefit
• beta-Carotene (Vitamin A)--potential benefit
• Black cohosh--potential benefit
• Garlic--potential benefit
• St John's wort--avoid

So as you can see, research refuted the theory that garlic would be harmful, though it supported that St John's wort should be avoided. Also, in their discussion, they mentioned that they could find no research about grapefruit at all.

Another important qualifier to all this: most of the studies were done in the lab, rather than in human subjects, so they might not pan out as expected. Also, there's not that may studies, and they make the point that with more research, all the results they published here could be proven false, but so far it's the best thing to go on.

Cited: Frenkel and Gupta (2010) Nutritional supplements and docetaxel: avoid or combine? J Soc Integ Oncol, 8(3), pg 120-125