Effect of oral magnesium oxide supplementation on cisplatin-induced hypomagnesemia in cancer patients: A randomized controlled trial

Background: hypomagnesaemia is one of the main side effects of cisplatin-based chemotherapy regimens in cancer patients. the aim of the current investigation was to evaluate the effect of oral magnesium oxide (mgo) supplementa-tion on cisplatin-induced hypomagnesemia. methods: this parallel-randomized controlled,open label trial was conducted in a hospital of iran university of med-ical sciences in tehran between december 2009 and may 2011. participants were 69 adult patients with newly diag-nosed non- leukemia neoplasms candidate for starting cisplatin-based chemotherapy. oral mgo supplement according to cisplatin dose (500 mg mgo per 50 mg/m2 of ciring serum mg change and hypomagnesaemia rate during chemotherapy treatment. results: sixty-two participants (31 intervention- 31 controls) enrolled into the study. serum mg levels showed signifi-cant difference between the two groups (p=0.01). there was a significant decrease in serum mg of the control group (p=0.001). at the end of follow-up period prevalence of hypomagnesaemia in the intervention group was 10.7% ver-sus 23.1% in the control group. conclusion: continuously oral supplementation with mgo according to cisplatin dose (500 mg mgo per 50 mg/m2 cisplatin) as 2-3 divided daily doses at rest days between chemotherapy cycles reduces the decline in serum mg levels and also the prevalence of hypomagnesaemia in cancer patients. © 2016,iranian journal of public health. all rights reserved.