ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT04629560Updated Nov 16, 2020

Miracle Fruit Powder for the Treatment of Taste Alterations Secondary to Chemotherapy

An Early Phase 1 interventional study of Miracle Fruit in Taste, Altered and Dysgeusia, sponsored by Mt. Sinai Medical Center, Miami. Completed. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2020-11-16.

Sponsored by Mt. Sinai Medical Center, Miami · Early Phase 1, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Primary completion was Jun 2011, 15 years 4 months ago, and no results have been posted to the registry.
  • Registered 12 years 2 months after the study started (first participant enrolled Aug 2008, registered Nov 2020).
Phase
Early Phase 1
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
48
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Purpose and Objective: Compare the incidence of taste alteration in treatment vs. control arms and Compare weight loss in treatment vs. control arms

Read the detailed description

After patients is explained all potential risks and study guidelines all patients will be given an ICF to sign if they wish to participate. Once the ICF has been signed by patient approximately between 3-5 days will undergo a screening to determine protocol eligibility. If patients qualifies (eligible) for study patients will be randomly assigned either to the miracle fruit intervention or to supportive measures at first and later participants will cross over to the other intervention

02

Conditions studied

  • Taste, Altered
  • Dysgeusia

Browse trials for

03

In context

Dysgeusia

52 studies on the registry are indexed under Dysgeusia; 12 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 48 is close to the median of 49 across 28 interventional studies indexed under Dysgeusia.

Browse Dysgeusia studies →

Lead sponsor

Mt. Sinai Medical Center, Miami is the lead sponsor of 17 studies on the registry; none are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • The inclusion criteria are the following:

    • Patients over 18 years old with a of 3 months or more.
    • Patients with an (ECOG) performance status of 0, 1 or 2
    • At enrollment, patients must be able to take oral medications and food reliably without any risk factors for aspiration.
    • Patients that have received at least 1 cycle of chemotherapy and have at least 1 more cycle planned.
    • Patients receiving the following drug-containing chemotherapy regimens: cyclophosphamide, carboplatin, cisplatinum, gemcitibine, methotrexate, doxorubicin, 5-fluorouracil, paclitaxel, docetaxel, vinorelbine, oxaliplatin, irinotecan and etoposide.
    • Patients receiving radiotherapy at the time of chemotherapy are allowed, with the exception of patients receiving radiotherapy for head and neck tumors
    • Patients with the ability to understand and the willingness to sign a written document written in English and answer all appropriate questionnaires in English or Spanish. (see Appendix 3)
    • Patients with are eligible if neurologically stable after appropriate treatment (surgery and/or radiation).

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

    • Patient that have mechanical obstruction of the alimentary tract.

      • Patients who have developed decreased/altered taste sensation for any reason besides chemotherapy
      • Patients with malabsorption or intractable vomiting.
      • Patients who have extensive dental caries
      • Patients who have poor oral hygiene
      • Patients receiving radiotherapy for head and neck tumors.
      • Previous surgery that included ablation or removal of the olfactory component of the taste.
      • Untreatable oral thrush.
      • Women that are pregnant, nursing or of and unwilling to use , as the effects of the miracle fruit on the developing human fetus are unknown.
      • Patients with an ANC \< 500/uL .
      • Patients with poorly controlled diabetes mellitus (DM) as determined by their primary physicians will be excluded from the study. All DM patients will be required to check their blood sugar on their usual home glucose meters at least once a day, prior to the ingestion of the miracle fruit. If the patient does not a glucose meter, we will provide the patient with one. Any case of hypoglycemia (blood sugar below 60) should be reported immediately to the treatment physician and the patient should stop the miracle fruit treatment.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(6)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Life expectancy

The study doctor’s estimate of how long someone is likely to live. Criteria use it so that people can stay in the study long enough for it to answer its question.

ECOG performance status

A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.

0
Fully active, no restrictions.
1
Limited in strenuous activity, but walking and able to do light work, such as housework or office work.
2
Walking and able to look after yourself, but unable to work; up and about more than half of waking hours.
3
Able to look after yourself only in part; in bed or a chair more than half of waking hours.
4
Unable to look after yourself at all; in bed or a chair all day.

Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Brain metastases

Cancer deposits in the brain from a cancer that started elsewhere in the body (CNS metastases include the spinal cord).

Studies differ: some leave out any brain metastases, some accept ones treated and stable for some weeks. Check what this study allows.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

05

Study design

Phase
Early Phase 1
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Crossover assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
48 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Miracle Fruit Arm

    Patient will be randomly assigned, by a computer generated randomization, to receive one miracle fruit tablet of 100 mg 10-15 minutes before lunch and dinner versus supportive measures.

    Drug: Miracle Fruit

  • No intervention
    Control Arm (supportive measures only)

    standard of care supportive measures

Interventions

  • DrugMiracle Fruit

    one miracle fruit tablet of 100 mg 10-15 minutes before lunch and dinner versus supportive measures. Patients assigned to receive the miracle fruit will receive written instructions regarding the use of the fruit. Patients should put the fruit tablet or powder in the mouth and gently chew/suck to dissolve and cover the tongue with the powder

    Also known as: supportive care

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Compare the incidence of taste alteration in treatment vs. control arms

    Taste alteration will be assessed using questions from the Wickham questionnaire of taste alterations. Patient responses to these questions will be transformed to a 0 to 100 scale.

    Time frame: 12 months

Secondary outcomes

  1. Compare weight loss in treatment vs. control arms

    Weight loss will be determined by comparing baseline (pre-intervention) weight with on-study weight.

    Time frame: 12 months

07

Study locations

No study locations are listed for this record.

08

References and documents

Publications

  • Griffin AM, Butow PN, Coates AS, Childs AM, Ellis PM, Dunn SM, Tattersall MH. On the receiving end. V: Patient perceptions of the side effects of cancer chemotherapy in 1993. Ann Oncol. 1996 Feb;7(2):189-95. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.annonc.a010548. PubMed 8777177 ↗
  • Bernhardson BM, Tishelman C, Rutqvist LE. Self-reported taste and smell changes during cancer chemotherapy. Support Care Cancer. 2008 Mar;16(3):275-83. doi: 10.1007/s00520-007-0319-7. Epub 2007 Aug 21. PubMed 17710445 ↗
  • Marin Caro MM, Laviano A, Pichard C. Impact of nutrition on quality of life during cancer. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2007 Jul;10(4):480-7. doi: 10.1097/MCO.0b013e3281e2c983. PubMed 17563467 ↗
  • Wickham RS, Rehwaldt M, Kefer C, Shott S, Abbas K, Glynn-Tucker E, Potter C, Blendowski C. Taste changes experienced by patients receiving chemotherapy. Oncol Nurs Forum. 1999 May;26(4):697-706. PubMed 10337648 ↗
  • Halyard MY, Jatoi A, Sloan JA, Bearden JD 3rd, Vora SA, Atherton PJ, Perez EA, Soori G, Zalduendo AC, Zhu A, Stella PJ, Loprinzi CL. Does zinc sulfate prevent therapy-induced taste alterations in head and neck cancer patients? Results of phase III double-blind, placebo-controlled trial from the North Central Cancer Treatment Group (N01C4). Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2007 Apr 1;67(5):1318-22. doi: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2006.10.046. PubMed 17394940 ↗
  • Kurihara K, Beidler LM. Taste-modifying protein from miracle fruit. Science. 1968 Sep 20;161(3847):1241-3. doi: 10.1126/science.161.3847.1241. PubMed 5673432 ↗
  • Brouwer JN, van der Wel H, Francke A, Henning GJ. Mieraculin, the sweetness-inducing protein from miracle fruit. Nature. 1968 Oct 26;220(5165):373-4. doi: 10.1038/220373a0. No abstract available. PubMed 5684879 ↗
  • Yamamoto C, Nagai H, Takahashi K, Nakagawa S, Yamaguchi M, Tonoike M, Yamamoto T. Cortical representation of taste-modifying action of miracle fruit in humans. Neuroimage. 2006 Dec;33(4):1145-51. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.08.009. Epub 2006 Oct 3. PubMed 17020807 ↗
  • Eton DT, Temple LM, Koffler K. Pilot validation of a self-report outcome measure of complementary and alternative medicine. Explore (NY). 2007 Nov-Dec;3(6):592-9. doi: 10.1016/j.explore.2007.08.004. PubMed 18005911 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Undecided

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Ran from Aug 2008 to primary completion in Jun 2011, 34 months.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Nov 10, 2020
First posted
Nov 16, 2020
StartActual
Aug 18, 2008
Primary completionActual
Jun 20, 2011
CompletionActual
Jun 20, 2011
Last update
Nov 16, 2020
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Nov 16, 2020, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04629560
Lead sponsor
Mt. Sinai Medical Center, Miami
Responsible party
Mike Cusnir (Medical Director Cancer Center/Chief of Hematology Oncology, Mt. Sinai Medical Center, Miami) — Principal investigator
First posted
Nov 16, 2020
Start date
Aug 18, 2008
Primary completion
Jun 20, 2011
Completion
Jun 20, 2011
Last update
Nov 16, 2020

Study contacts

Mike Cusnir, MD
study chair · Mount Sinai Medical Center of Florida

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
Yes
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Nov 2020. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

Follow this study

Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.

Sign in to follow

Discussion

Questions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.

Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.

Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.

Start the discussion