Intestinal permeability, vitamin A absorption and serum alpha-tocopherol during therapy with gefitinib

Abstract

Measurement of intestinal permeability represents one of the potential methods of noninvasive laboratory assessment of gastrointestinal toxicity of anticancer therapy. We have assessed intestinal permeability (by measuring absorption of lactulose, mannitol, and xylose), vitamin A absorption and serum alpha-tocopherol in patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma or head and neck carcinomas treated with gefitinib.

Keywords

• lactulose
• retinol
• vitamin E
• xylose