Symposium 4: Hot topics in parenteral nutrition A review of the use of glutamine supplementation in the nutritional support of patients undergoing bone-marrow transplantation and traditional cancer therapy

The relationship between glutamine and malignancy can be traced back to the 1950s and the requirement for glutamine for malignant-cell growth in culture. Later studies demonstrated an association between the rate of proliferation of the malignant cells and glutamine usage. The excessive use of glutamine by malignant cells was seen as an opportunity for the development of a treatment using glutamine analogues, but unfortunately excessive …