Beetroot-Carrot Juice Intake either Alone or in Combination with Antileukemic Drug 'Chlorambucil' As A Potential Treatment for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

Abstract

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is one of the chronic lymphoproliferative disorders (lymphoid neoplasms). It is characterized by a progressive accumulation of functionally incompetent lymphocytes. Patients with leukemia often seek unconventional treatments not prescribed by hematologist in order to improve their cancer treatment outcome or to manage symptoms. In the present report, a 76-year-old patient was diagnosed with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL). Beetroot-carrot juice is used as a complementary and or/alternative therapy used in conjunction with conventional leukemic treatment (chlorambucil) that has been a standard first-line chemotherapeutic agent for patients with CLL and known to have serious and undesirable side-effects. After one month and 15 days of administration of beetroot-carrot juice therapy, the patient had improved appetite, a sense of general well-being and increased vigor daily activities. Furthermore, beetroot-carrot juice was used as an adjuvant to chlorambucil resulted in a substantial reduction in leukocytes and lymphocytes count in peripheral blood and improvement in the relevant biochemical parameters. Beetroot-carrot juice can be used as an effective treatment for CLL alone or in combination with chlorambucil when taken orally with regular diet on daily basis.

Beetroot as a Potential Functional Food for Cancer Chemoprevention, a Narrative Review

“…Only an isolated case report on an elderly patient diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and her clinical experiences with beetroot juice was published. The patient who refused chlorambucil after a recurrence of disease, was started with beetroot-carrot juice [ 77 ]. In the clinical follow-up duration, administration of beetroot-carrot juice alone induced a reduction in lymphocyte and peripheral blood leukocytes count by 14.7% and 43.13%, respectively with a concurrent decrease in the uric acid level.…”

“…Interestingly, her condition was reversed when beetroot-carrot juice was reintroduced. This observation provides single but limited evidence for the effectiveness of the beetroot-carrot juice in eliminating malignant leukemic cells [ 77 ].…”

Complementary and Alternative Therapies in Oncology

“…In vitro studies have shown that beet juice may increase the anticancer effect of doxorubicin [9]. A case report suggested that the combination of chlorambucil with beet juice and carrot juice is beneficial in a B-CLL leukemia patient [32]. Finally, the consumption of large amounts of carrot juice and beet juice was shown to reduce the anticancer effects of cisplatin [33].…”

Beetroot as a functional food with huge health benefits: Antioxidant, antitumor, physical function, and chronic metabolomics activity

“…This probably attributed to betalains for its ability to reduce the mRNA level of COX‐2 and IL‐8. For chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients, it has begun to be gradually accepted that the application of beetroot–carrot juice provided a successful treatment for the complementary or alternative therapy combined with chlorambucil, a conventional leukemic treatment drug (Shakib et al., 2015 ). This effect was proved by the decrease of the number of leukocytes, lymphocytes in peripheral blood and improve the relevant biochemical parameters.…”