The Ultimate Value Meal: Popping Pills After Meals Could Boost Drug Effectiveness

The cancer drug lapatinib is, like many pills, supposed to be taken on an empty stomach. But University of Chicago oncologists say that patients who take it after eating might actually require less of the expensive drug:

But taking it after a full meal would boost the amount of the drug circulating in the body by 167 percent, and taking it after a high-fat meal would boost it by 325 percent, the researchers found.

That might allow patients to use 40 percent less to achieve the same effect as taking it on an empty stomach. At a cost of $2,900 a month, the change could save each patient, or insurers, $1,740 or more a month, the researchers said.

The study, warned the authors, isn't a recommendation for how individuals should take drugs. Instead, it points to an unexplored field of research: potentially beneficial drug-food interactions. Done right, diet could actually be a tool for reducing side effects and boosting pharmaceutical power.

Can the right food cut cost of cancer pills? [Reuters]

The Value Meal: How to Save $1,700 Per Month or More on Lapatinib [Journal of Clinical Oncology]

Image: Ruth L (King crab and beers ... now that has some serious synergistic pharmaceutical potential.)*