l -Glutamine’s potential to enhance chemotherapy efficacy in advanced pancreatic cancer

The study had a single arm and its results were compared with historical benchmarks rather than a randomised control group, so it does not establish that L-glutamine prolongs survival. Within that design, adding oral L-glutamine to first-line gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel in untreated advanced pancreatic cancer was safe and was associated with better survival outcomes and tumour responses than those benchmarks. The authors attribute the effect to modulation of intermediary metabolism, gut microbial function, inflammatory responses and gut barrier integrity; confirming that hypothesis requires a randomised trial.