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ReCharge, the strawberry flavoured ice cream, created by Fonterra to combat the side-effects of chemotherapy - Source: ONE News -
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Cancer patients could be in for a treat as a new medical ice cream has been developed to combat the side effects of chemotherapy.
Researchers at the University of Auckland worked with dairy giant Fonterra to create the medical dessert which has showed encouraging signs in combating the side-effects of chemotherapy.
The strawberry dessert has already worked on mice and is now being tested on cancer patients.
Called ReCharge, project leader Professor Geoff Krissansen says the discovery was like a eureka moment.
"It was like looking for a needle in a haystack and then along came a eureka moment& here was something that was really exciting," says Krissansen.
The secret ingredient scientists say is two key components in milk that they found that can help cancer patients. But usually those patients would have to drink 12 of two litre milk containers a day to get the benefit.
Now with the new ice cream, they would only have to eat 100 grams and it's pretty tasty too.
Les, who is battling cancer and the ongoing side effects of toxic, life saving chemotherapy, says ice cream is a much better way to get the medicine down compared to pills.
"You get sort of fatigue, nausea, tingling of the sensation of the tongue, but one of the big ones is the effect on the stomach with cramping, bloating and diarrhoea and not very pleasant stuff at all," says Les, who's hoping the new medical ice cream could lick away those unpleasantries.
ReCharge could also make Fonterra millions of dollars.
"We chose ice cream because it is an easily palatable food. It was one that we could put the enriched components in a very high concentration and deliver it to people who actually find it difficult to consume food during the treatment," says Dr Jeremy Hill, the chief technology officer at Fonterra.
Dr Jan Pearson, health promotion manager at the Cancer Society, says it is all about benefiting patients.
"What I'm looking at is the benefit to the patient at the end, rather than the 'oh yes this could be of benefit to the company', but if it is, well that's not going to be any bad thing either," says Pearson.
Participants in the trial have already begun eating a 100 gram tub of the strawberry-flavoured ice cream each day.
But whether they will really be tasting success will be proven when the results are released in a year.
