Glutamine in Preventing Myalgia and/or Arthralgia in Patients Who Are Receiving Paclitaxel For Cancer

Exclusion Criteria

• •The patient has received another investigational drug within the past 30 days.
• •No myalgias or arthralgias in prior paclitaxel courses.
• •The patient has uncontrolled (over the last 30 days), clinically significant confounding medical conditions such as rheumatoid disease, fibromyalgia, or chronic fatigue syndrome. Also if the patient has a viral infection, cold symptoms, fever (\> 38 C -degrees celsius) or influenza.
• •Patients with existing neuropathies or neurologic disorders which would prevent them from accurately assessing the onset or extent of myalgias and arthralgias.
• •The patient has had significant medical intervention in the last 30 days
• •The patient is pregnant or lactating.
• •Patients who are unable to take oral medications or with medical conditions that might inhibit their ability to absorb protein from the gastrointestinal tract.
• •Patients who are unwilling to abstain from additional protein supplements of any kind other than that obtained through "normal" dietary intake.
• •Patients required to take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents (NSAIDS), antioxidant vitamins, and unable or unwilling to abstain from them for 1 week prior to and during glutamine/placebo therapy.
• •Patients with metabolic errors or abnormalities of protein metabolism.
• •Patients with a history of blood urea nitrogen level \> 2 times normal with a normal serum creatinine.