Animal and human studies on anticancer treatments with dietary fibre supplementation/intake
| Animal model/study type (size) | Cancer | Dietary fibre and anticancer treatmentsreference | Main findings | Fibre dose and duration of supplementation |
| BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice | Colorectal carcinoma and melanoma | Orally administered inulin gel along with anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitors86 | ↑ the relative abundances of important commensal microbes and SCFAs; ↑ interferon-γ cytotoxic T cells; ↑ establishment of stem-like T-cell factor-1+ PD-1+ CD8+ T cells | 60 mg/dose inulin gel started 7 days after tumour inoculation, followed by anti-PD-1 |
| C57BL/6 mice | Melanoma | Inulin along with anti-PD-1 therapy85 | ↑ the abundance of Bifidobacterium; ↓ tumour growth; ↑ Th1-polarised CD4+ and CD8+ αβ T cell-mediated antitumour response | 7.2% inulin in drinking water started 15 days before tumour inoculation; anti-PD-L1 was injected intraperitoneally on days 4, 7 and 10 post-tumour inoculation |
| Observational study (n=128) | Melanoma | Dietary fibre intake and immunotherapy (anti-PD-1, anti-CTLA1)87 | ↑ progression-free survival was associated with higher dietary fibre intake in 128 patients received immunotherapy | Sufficient (>20 g/day) versus insufficient (<20 g/day) dietary fibre intake |
| Randomised controlled trial (n=38) | Gynaecological cancer | Inulin and fructooligosaccharide, and pelvic radiotherapy (52.2 Gy)±brachytherapy90 | ↓ number of days with watery stool | 12 g mixture of fibre (50% inulin and 50% FOS) per day vs 12 g maltodextrin per day |
| Randomised controlled trial (n=60) | Prostate or gynaecologic cancer | Psyllium and pelvic radiotherapy (mean of 68 Gy)91 | ↓ incidence and severity of diarrhoea | Psyllium (dose: not specified) |
| Randomised controlled trial (n=166) | Pelvic cancer | Nonstarch polysaccharide (NSP) and pelvic radiotherapy (mean of 54 Gy)95 | High-fibre group has a small change of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire–Bowel Subset (IBDQ-B) score between the start and end of radiotherapy compared with the habitual-fibre group | High-fibre (≥18 g NSP/day), habitual-fibre (control), low-fibre (≤10 g NSP)/day] diet |
| Randomised controlled trial (n=141) | Advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) | 1,3–1,6 β-D-glucan and concurrent chemotherapy (cisplatin, tegafur, uracil, leucovorin) and radiotherapy (65–75 Gy)105 | ↓ concurrent chemoradiotherapy-associated adverse events; ↑ global quality of life scale score | 1 g Maitake mushroom extract per day, 1 hour before meals during CCRT |