Micke O1, Büntzel J2, Mücke R4, Kisters K5
1Department of Radiotherapy and Radiation Oncology, Franziskus Hospital, Bielefeld, DE
2Department of Otolaryngology, Südharz Hospital Nordhausen, Nordhausen, DE
3Radiotherapy RheinMainNahe, Bad Kreuznach, DE
4Department of Internal Medicine, St. Anna Hospital, Herne, DE
Purpose: Oncology had not paid much attention to magnesium so far. However, it plays an important role in numerous physiological and pathophysiological processes, e.g. in anticancerogenesis, regulation DNA- and RNA synthesis, mitosis, metastasis, nuclear repair mechanisms, and apoptosis.
Materials and methods: A systematic literature search of “magnesium” and the search terms “oncology”, “cancer”, “tumor”, “neoplasm”, “radiotherapy”, was performed in the PubMed database. Furthermore, quotations in the publications found were used.
Results: Oncological therapies negatively influencing renal function can cause severe hypomagnesaemias, as shown by own studies. The introduction of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antibodies to oncology, particularly in colorectal cancers lead to clinical hypomagnesaemias and in up to 10% to 36% of cases to severe Grad III/IV hypomagnesaemias. Thereby, interestingly it appeared that there is a significant positive correlation between hypomagnesaemia clinical response to the antibody therapy as well was to a significantly better survival. The underlying mechanism is nearly unknown, but maybe for example the inhibition of DNA repair in tumor cells. Therefore, under special circumstances a low magnesium level may be more useful for tumor patients.
Another interesting aspect of magnesium is the treatment of hot flashes due to hormonal deprivation therapy. Magnesium is known for its neuro- and vasoactive effects. So far, there are only some small clinical studies and few case reports on this topic.
Recent studies on the use of magnesium in nephrotoxic chemotherapies like cisplatinum clearly showed, that a pretreatment with magnesium has a special nephroprotection effect.
In addition, several epidemiological studies suggested, that a higher magnesium serum level is associated with a lower cancer incidence.
Conclusion: In the light of the study data, magnesium remains a highly interesting ion for oncology, whose different facets should be more and more enlightened.
