[Nutraceuticals in the clinical management of women with breast cancer; a narrative review].

The nutraceuticals are included within the concept of food supplements and they can be defined as concentrated sources of nutrients or other substances with a nutritional or physiological effect. They are marketed in the form of "doses" (namely, pills, tablets, capsules or liquids in measured doses). Beyond food, they include the fields of so-called functional foods, food supplements and dietary foods for special medical uses. In the period between 1999 and 2007 alone, their total sales increased by 260.30% in Spain, through more than 650 companies that invoice more than € 350 million annually, with more than 30,000 points of sale throughout Spain. They have been widely used in the management of breast cancer survivors with the aim of improving their quality of life, from various side effects related to post-treatment deficits of chemotherapy and hormone therapy. The objective of this narrative review is to revisit the concepts that encompass the group of nutraceuticals, as well as to assess the clinical effectiveness that some of them may have in the clinical management and possible increase in the quality of life of women who have survived breast cancer. A literature review was conducted in electronic databases [Medline via PubMed, Central, CINAHL, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (Wiley platform)], among others), using free and standardized search terms.