Article Data

  • Views 1426
  • Dowloads 195

Original Research

Open Access

Cytoplasmic pollen extract for treatment of menopausal symptoms in breast cancer patients: a case series report

  • Aldo Iop1,*,
  • Pamela Driol1
  • Alessandra Zacchia1
  • Manuela Miscoria1

1Oncology Unit, AAS2 Bassa Friulana Isontina, 33053, Italy

DOI: 10.31083/j.ejgo.2021.01.2130 Vol.42,Issue 1,February 2021 pp.45-49

Submitted: 12 May 2020 Accepted: 26 October 2020

Published: 15 February 2021

*Corresponding Author(s): Aldo Iop E-mail: aldo.iop@aas2.sanita.fvg.it

Abstract

Objective: Menopausal symptoms, such as hot flushes (HFs), night sweats, vaginal dryness, psychological symptoms, and sexual dysfunction are a significant issue in breast cancer (BC) survivors, especially in those with hormone receptor-positive (HR+) subtype. Since hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is not indicated in these patients due to its estrogenic activity, we sought to investigate the role of cytoplasmic pollen extract (Femal®) with non-estrogenic effects as an adjuvant treatment in BC women. Methods: This case series study included 12 women with HR+, eight with Luminal A and four with Luminal B cancers, with a median age of 47 years (range 37-53) who received cytoplasmic pollen extract for 3 months. Menopause symptomatology was monitored through the Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) at the beginning of the treatment (T0) and at 90 days (T3). Tolerance was evaluated by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) score. Results: After 3 months of treatment, all cases had an improvement in HFs, cardiac symptoms, irritability and anxiety symptoms. No side effects were found. Tolerance and compliance were excellent during the study. Conclusions: This observational study suggests that cytoplasmic pollen extract is well tolerated when administered to BC (HR+) women with contraindications to HRT together with a positive impact on the patient’s menopausal related symptoms. However, longer follow-up afand future randomized studies are needed.


Keywords

Cytoplasmic pollen extract; Menopausal symptoms; Breast cancer patients; Quality of life; Non-hormonal therapy


Cite and Share

Aldo Iop,Pamela Driol,Alessandra Zacchia,Manuela Miscoria. Cytoplasmic pollen extract for treatment of menopausal symptoms in breast cancer patients: a case series report. European Journal of Gynaecological Oncology. 2021. 42(1);45-49.

References

[1] Bachmann GA. Menopausal vasomotor symptoms: causes, effects, and evidence-based treatment options. Prempro Litigation Documents. 2009. Available at: https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf .edu/docs/zsvw021.

[2] Druckmann R, Lachowsky M, Elia D. A non-hormonal treatment, efficient and safe on symptoms during pre-menopause and menopause, improve women’s quality of life. [Poster]. 16th World Congress on Human Reproduction, Berlin. 2015.

[3] Freedman RR. Pathophysiology and treatment of menopausal hot flashes. Seminars in Reproductive Medicine. 2005; 23: 117-125.

[4] Lello S. Sintomi vasomotori ed estratto di polline purificato: meccanismo di azione. Giornale Italiano di ostetricia e ginecologia. 2017; 39: 104. (In Italian)

[5] Terauchi M, Hiramitsu S, Akiyoshi M, Owa Y, Kato K, Obayashi S, et al. Associations among depression, anxiety and somatic symptoms in peri- and postmenopausal women. Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research. 2013; 39: 1007-1013.

[6] Elia D, Mares P. Assessment of the tolerance and effectiveness of a food supplement Sérélys® (Femal®) for menopausal women. GENESIS. 2008; 135: 12-15.

[7] Winther K, Rein E, Hedman C. Femal, a herbal remedy made from pollen extracts, reduces hot flushes and improves quality of life in menopausal women: a randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel study. Climacteric. 2005; 8: 162-170.

[8] Wiśniewska I, Jochymek B, Lenart-Lipińska M, Chabowski M. The pharmacological and hormonal therapy of hot flushes in breast cancer survivors. Breast Cancer. 2016; 23: 178-182.

[9] Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer. Type and timing of menopausal hormone therapy and breast cancer risk: individual participant meta-analysis of the worldwide epidemio-logical evidence. The Lancet. 2019; 394: 1159-1168.

[10] Espié M, Druckmann R. How can not flashes be managed for breast cancer patients and survivors without risk? [Poster]. North American Menopause Society Annual Meetin. 2014.

[11] Goldstein SR, Espié M, Druckmann R. Does purified Swedish pollen extract, a nonhormonal treatment for vasomotor symptoms, inhibit the CYP2D6 enzyme system? Menopause. 2015; 22: 1212-1214.

[12] Hellström A, Muntzing J. The pollen extract femal-a nonestrogenic alternative to hormone therapy in women with menopausal symptoms. Menopause. 2012; 19: 825-829.

[13] Shanafelt TD, Barton DL, Adjei AA, Loprinzi CL. Pathophysiology and treatment of hot flashes. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2002; 77: 1207-1218.

[14] Biglia N, Bounos VE, De Seta F, Nappi RE, Paoletti AM. Non-hormonal strategies for managing menopausal symptoms in cancer survivors: an update. Ecancermedicalscience. 2019; 13: 909.

[15] D’Alterio M, Giancane E, Cornacchia S, et al. “GC Fem, PI 82, vitamin E” in menopause treatment: benefits for peri - and post-menopausal neurovegetative symptoms. Multidisciplinary Journal of Woman’s Health. 2015; 4.

[16] Czuczwar P, Paszkowski T, Lisiecki M, Woźniak S, Stępniak A. The safety and tolerance of phytotherapies in menopausal medicine - a review of the literature. Przeglad Menopauzalny. 2017; 16: 8-11.

[17] Heinemann LAJ, DoMinh T, Strelow F, Gerbsch S, Schnitker J, Schneider HPG. The Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) as outcome measure for hormone treatment? A validation study. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes. 2004; 2: 67.

[18] Berlin Center for Epidemiology and Health Research. MRS -the menopause rating scale. MRS - the menopause rating scale. de Available at : http://www.menopause-rating-scale.info/ (Ac-cessed: 4 November 2019).

[19] Carpenter JS, Wu J, Burns DS, Yu M. Perceived control and hot flashes in treatment-seeking breast cancer survivors and menopausal women. Cancer Nursing. 2012; 35: 195-202.

[20] Kimura H, Gruber P. Perimenopausal symptoms such as hot flushes and mood swings are reduced by a standardized pollen and pistil extracts. Available at: http://www.scicompdf.se/femal/gru ber.pdf.

[21] Fait T, Sailer M, Regidor P. Prospective observational study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the pollen extract Sérélys® in the management of women with menopausal symptoms. Gynecological Endocrinology. 2019; 35: 360-363.



Abstracted / indexed in

Science Citation Index Expanded (SciSearch) Created as SCI in 1964, Science Citation Index Expanded now indexes over 9,500 of the world’s most impactful journals across 178 scientific disciplines. More than 53 million records and 1.18 billion cited references date back from 1900 to present.

Biological Abstracts Easily discover critical journal coverage of the life sciences with Biological Abstracts, produced by the Web of Science Group, with topics ranging from botany to microbiology to pharmacology. Including BIOSIS indexing and MeSH terms, specialized indexing in Biological Abstracts helps you to discover more accurate, context-sensitive results.

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines.

JournalSeek Genamics JournalSeek is the largest completely categorized database of freely available journal information available on the internet. The database presently contains 39226 titles. Journal information includes the description (aims and scope), journal abbreviation, journal homepage link, subject category and ISSN.

Current Contents - Clinical Medicine Current Contents - Clinical Medicine provides easy access to complete tables of contents, abstracts, bibliographic information and all other significant items in recently published issues from over 1,000 leading journals in clinical medicine.

BIOSIS Previews BIOSIS Previews is an English-language, bibliographic database service, with abstracts and citation indexing. It is part of Clarivate Analytics Web of Science suite. BIOSIS Previews indexes data from 1926 to the present.

Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition aims to evaluate a journal’s value from multiple perspectives including the journal impact factor, descriptive data about a journal’s open access content as well as contributing authors, and provide readers a transparent and publisher-neutral data & statistics information about the journal.

Submission Turnaround Time

Conferences

Top