Drug & supplement interaction

Lentinan + Tocilizumab

Tocilizumab brand name: Actemra.

No Known Interaction
Medically reviewed by · Updated July 2026 · Pair last verified Sep 20, 2026
The bottom line No known interaction

We found no known interaction between Lentinan and Tocilizumab in our sources. Absence of a documented interaction is not the same as proven safety, and does not guarantee one does not exist. Do not start, stop, or change a medication or supplement based on this page; confirm with your pharmacist or doctor first. Additionally, although there is no interaction, the two are separately associated with some of the same side effects, which would make a new symptom harder to attribute to one or the other.

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Interaction report

Lentinan and Tocilizumab

We checked these two against our interaction database. Here is what we found.

No Known Interaction Found

We did not find a documented interaction between Tocilizumab and Lentinan in our sources. This does not guarantee that the combination is completely free of risk — there is often limited research on supplements and herbal products, especially around drug interactions.

If you decide to take both, the practical routine is simple: add one new thing at a time and note the date you started it. If the combination is going to disagree with you, it usually shows in the first days to a couple of weeks — and a start date turns “I’ve been feeling off” into something a pharmacist can actually work with. Do not stop a prescribed medicine on your own.

Always talk with your pharmacist or doctor before making changes to your medications or supplements, particularly if you take several medications or have an ongoing health condition.

Lentinan safety at a glance

Lentinan overall Use caution Oral mushroom extracts are generally well tolerated, but the injectable medical form should only be used under a doctor's care.
Pregnancy Avoid There is not enough reliable safety information, so it is best to avoid use during pregnancy.
Breastfeeding Avoid Safety while breastfeeding is unknown, so avoiding it is the safer choice.

Safety guidance is general; always confirm with your pharmacist or doctor for your situation.

Still wondering about combining Tocilizumab and Lentinan? Ask Dr. Brian Staiger, PharmD, BCPS directly ›
How we checked

Why No Interaction Is Listed for Tocilizumab

Interactions in our licensed database are recorded against drug classes, not just single drug names. Tocilizumab is filed under 2 classifications — immunosuppressants, hepatotoxic drugs. Lentinan has documented interactions with 8 drug classes — the most serious being cytochrome p450 1a2 (cyp1a2) substrates (moderate), cytochrome p450 2c19 (cyp2c19) substrates (moderate) and cytochrome p450 2d6 (cyp2d6) substrates (moderate) — and none of Tocilizumab’s classifications are among them.

Classification data comes from our licensed Natural Medicines dataset. A medication can belong to classes beyond those recorded there, so this describes how the check was run — it is not a safety guarantee.

Keep it in perspective

Lentinan Does Interact With Other Medications

Lentinan has 814 moderate known drug interactions in our database — Tocilizumab isn’t one of them. If you take anything else, check it against the full list below.

Moderate 814 No known interaction 2,016 (incl. Tocilizumab)
Taking anything else?

Check Another of Your Medications Against Lentinan

Covers the 2,830 medications we’ve checked against Lentinan. Pick one to open its full report.

What to actually watch for

No Interaction Found — But Data Suggests Lentinan and Tocilizumab May Share Several of the Same Side Effects

This is not an interaction. Neither one changes how your body handles the other, and nothing here says they react together. What our sources do show is that each has separately been linked to the effects below — so taking both can make those effects more likely to turn up, and harder to pin on one or the other if they do. One of them is worth acting on rather than waiting out — marked below.

  • A low platelet count Worth acting on Additional detail

    Lentinan

    “Parenterally and orally, lentinan seems to be well tolerated. Orally, lentinan has been rarely reported to cause rash, diarrhea, and constipation. Parenterally, lentinan has been reported to cause gastrointestinal cramping, rash, myalgia, and fatigue. Mild thrombocytopenia has also been reported in clinical trials (6).”

    Lentinan · Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, reported in constipation.

    5 sources cited
    1. 96863. Wang H, Cai Y, Zheng Y, Bai Q, Xie D, Yu J. Efficacy of biological response modifier lentinan with chemotherapy for advanced cancer: a meta-analysis. Cancer Med. 2017;6(10):2222-2233. PubMed
    2. 34779. Hazama, S., Watanabe, S., Ohashi, M., Yagi, M., Suzuki, M., Matsuda, K., Yamamoto, T., Suga, Y., Suga, T., Nakazawa, S., and Oka, M. Efficacy of orally administered superfine dispersed lentinan (beta-1,3-glucan) for the treatment of advanced colorectal c
    3. 1107. Gordon M, Guralnik M, Kaneko Y, et al. A phase II controlled study of a combination of the immune modulator, lentinan, with didanosine (ddI) in HIV patients with CD4 cells of 200-500/mm3. J Med 1995;26:193-207.
    4. 6. The Review of Natural Products by Facts and Comparisons. St. Louis, MO: Wolters Kluwer Co., 1999.
    5. 1111. Wada T, Nishide T, Hatayama K, et al. [A comparative clinical trial with tegafur plus lentinan treatment at two different doses in advanced cancer]. Gan To Kagaku Ryoho 1987;14:2509-11.

    “Parenterally, lentinan has been reported to cause mild thrombocytopenia (6).”

    Lentinan · Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, reported in thrombocytopenia.

    1 source cited
    1. 6. The Review of Natural Products by Facts and Comparisons. St. Louis, MO: Wolters Kluwer Co., 1999.

    Tocilizumab

    Listed in the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of the FDA label for Tocilizumab. Read the label on DailyMed ›

  • Joint pain reported in 49.7% of FDA reports for Tocilizumab Additional detail

    Lentinan

    “Parenterally, lentinan has been reported to cause joint pain and myalgia.”

    Lentinan · Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, reported in myalgia.

    2 sources cited
    1. 1107. Gordon M, Guralnik M, Kaneko Y, et al. A phase II controlled study of a combination of the immune modulator, lentinan, with didanosine (ddI) in HIV patients with CD4 cells of 200-500/mm3. J Med 1995;26:193-207.
    2. 7267. Gordon M, Bihari B, Goosby E, et al. A placebo-controlled trial of the immune modulator, lentinan, in HIV-positive patients: a phase I/II trial. J Med 1998;29:305-30.

    Tocilizumab

    Listed in the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of the FDA label for Tocilizumab, and in voluntary FDA adverse-event reports. Read the label on DailyMed ›

  • Swelling reported in 14.4% of FDA reports for Tocilizumab Additional detail

    Lentinan

    “Parenterally, lentinan has been reported to cause chills, fever, and lymph node swelling.”

    Lentinan · Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, reported in fever.

    1 source cited
    1. 7267. Gordon M, Bihari B, Goosby E, et al. A placebo-controlled trial of the immune modulator, lentinan, in HIV-positive patients: a phase I/II trial. J Med 1998;29:305-30.

    Tocilizumab

    Listed in the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of the FDA label for Tocilizumab, and in voluntary FDA adverse-event reports. Read the label on DailyMed ›

  • A skin rash reported in 12.1% of FDA reports for Tocilizumab Additional detail

    Lentinan

    Recorded for Lentinan in the same Natural Medicines adverse-effect record shown under A low platelet count above.

    Tocilizumab

    Listed in the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of the FDA label for Tocilizumab, and in voluntary FDA adverse-event reports. Read the label on DailyMed ›

  • Constipation / Diarrhea Additional detail

    Lentinan

    “Orally and parenterally, lentinan has been rarely reported to cause diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and constipation.”

    Lentinan · Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, reported in constipation.

    2 sources cited
    1. 7267. Gordon M, Bihari B, Goosby E, et al. A placebo-controlled trial of the immune modulator, lentinan, in HIV-positive patients: a phase I/II trial. J Med 1998;29:305-30.
    2. 34779. Hazama, S., Watanabe, S., Ohashi, M., Yagi, M., Suzuki, M., Matsuda, K., Yamamoto, T., Suga, Y., Suga, T., Nakazawa, S., and Oka, M. Efficacy of orally administered superfine dispersed lentinan (beta-1,3-glucan) for the treatment of advanced colorectal c

    Tocilizumab

    Listed in the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of the FDA label for Tocilizumab. Read the label on DailyMed ›

  • Headache Additional detail

    Lentinan

    “Parenterally, lentinan has been reported to cause headache.”

    Lentinan · Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, reported in cluster headache.

    1 source cited
    1. 7267. Gordon M, Bihari B, Goosby E, et al. A placebo-controlled trial of the immune modulator, lentinan, in HIV-positive patients: a phase I/II trial. J Med 1998;29:305-30.

    Tocilizumab

    Listed in the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of the FDA label for Tocilizumab. Read the label on DailyMed ›

  • Nausea Additional detail

    Lentinan

    Recorded for Lentinan in the same Natural Medicines adverse-effect record shown under Constipation / Diarrhea above.

    Tocilizumab

    Listed in the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of the FDA label for Tocilizumab. Read the label on DailyMed ›

Reported for Lentinan but not commonly for Tocilizumab: chest pain, vomiting, muscle pain and tiredness.

Effects for Tocilizumab come from the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of its FDA label; effects for Lentinan come from the Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, quoted above. Where a percentage is shown, it is the share of 112,048 voluntary FDA FAERS reports for Tocilizumab that mention that effect — a reporting proportion, not an incidence rate and not evidence the drug caused it. Wording is matched across sources by our own clinical vocabulary, so treat this as a prompt to pay attention, not a diagnosis.

Everything else you take

See Every Supplement That Interacts With Tocilizumab

This page covers Lentinan only. If you take other supplements — a multivitamin, a sleep aid, something for joints — the Tocilizumab page lists 89 supplements it has a documented interaction with, worst first, each one explained.

The most serious there right now: Beer (major), Siberian Cocklebur (major), Wine (major), Active Hexose Correlated Compound (ahcc) (moderate) and Alfalfa (moderate).

By severity: 3 major · 85 moderate · 1 minor.

From our pharmacist’s overview on the Tocilizumab page

“Tocilizumab (Actemra) calms an overactive immune system in conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, and it is also known to strain the liver, which is exactly where its supplement interactions concentrate. This page deserves genuine care.”

Reviewed by 2 · Jul 18, 2026

Open the Tocilizumab interaction page

One more smart check

Taking Lentinan as Part of a Dietary Supplement Product? Check It for Interactions

We hold 1 real supplement products containing Lentinan, each one broken down to its full ingredient list — and combination products often carry several ingredients besides Lentinan. Even though Lentinan itself has no known interaction with Tocilizumab, another ingredient on your label might. Find your product and we’ll check every ingredient on its label:

How much people look this up

Where Lentinan and Tocilizumab Sit Against Everything Else

Out of every supplement and medication people look up on HelloPharmacist, here is where these two land this week — and which way each has been moving.

Supplement Lentinan
Steady interest

#752 of 1,452 supplements looked up here in the last 7 days

29 days ago today
Medication Tocilizumab
Steady interest

#2,553 of 2,830 medications looked up here in the last 7 days

29 days ago today

Position among everything looked up on this site, not a measure of how commonly either one is used or how important it is. A supplement can climb this list because of a news story. It counts every request to the page, automated ones included, and nothing here identifies anyone.

Where does our data come from?
  • Source: the Natural Medicines (TRC Healthcare) clinical database — the evidence-graded professional reference for herb & supplement interactions.
  • Citation library: 103,510 references behind our interaction content, 65,311 of them resolved to verified PubMed/DOI sources. See every Lentinan reference on this page ↓
  • Freshness: we automatically re-check this combination every week — this pair was last verified September 20, 2026. The Lentinan and Tocilizumab records this page draws on were last updated July 10, 2026.
  • What “no known interaction” means: no documented interaction in the sources above — not a guarantee of safety. Supplements are studied far less than prescription drugs, so we say exactly what the evidence supports, and nothing more.
Data structure & sourcing designed and verified by .
Supplement

About Lentinan

What is Lentinan?

Lentinan
  • Immune support
  • Used alongside cancer treatment
  • Anti-inflammatory
  • General wellness/tonic
  • Antimicrobial support

Lentinan is a beta-glucan polysaccharide from shiitake mushrooms that is studied mainly as an immune-modulating add-on to cancer chemotherapy, where it is given by injection in a few countries. Evidence for oral supplements is limited, and quality varies widely between products. Talk with your pharmacist or doctor before using it, especially if you have a health condition or are pregnant or breastfeeding.

Lentinula edodes · Marasmiaceae · Fruiting body of the shiitake mushroom (the polysaccharide is extracted from it) · Injection (used in some countries under medical supervision), capsules, tablets, powdered mushroom extracts, oral liquid

An interaction check asks whether these two react with each other — it does not ask whether Lentinan is a good idea for someone in your situation. Here is what our Lentinan record says about it on its own.

Lentinan: dosing

There is no well-established standard dose for oral lentinan or shiitake supplements. Products differ a lot in how much actual beta-glucan they contain, so amounts on labels are not always comparable.If you choose to take an oral supplement, follow the directions on the product label and do not exceed them. The injectable medical form has its own dosing that is determined by a doctor as part of cancer treatment and is not something to manage at home.

From our Lentinan monograph — the full record covers uses, side effects and every documented interaction.

Read the full Lentinan monograph & all interactions
Medication

About Tocilizumab Injection

What Is Tocilizumab Injection Used For?

Brand name: Actemra

Tocilizumab injection is used to treat several serious inflammatory and immune-related conditions. Actemra (tocilizumab) is indicated for moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis in adults who haven't responded well to other disease-modifying drugs, giant cell arteritis in adults, systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD) to slow lung function decline, polyarticular and systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis in patients 2 years and older, and severe or life-threatening cytokine release syndrome (CRS) caused by CAR T-cell therapy in adults and children 2 and older.

Actemra is also approved for hospitalized adults and children aged 2 and older with COVID-19 who are on corticosteroids and need supplemental oxygen or mechanical breathing support. Not every brand or route is approved for every use — your prescriber will choose the right form for your specific condition.

Most-Reported Side Effects for Tocilizumab

From FAERS, the FDA’s public side-effect reporting system (113,819 reports, all brands). Reports are voluntary and are not proof the drug caused the effect.

Rheumatoid arthritis 22,747 reports
Arthralgia 17,322 reports
Joint swelling 16,327 reports
Fatigue 15,391 reports
Rash 13,781 reports
See full Tocilizumab Injection drug information
Keep checking

Other Drugs & Lentinan

Browse every other medication we’ve checked against Lentinan — both the ones with a known interaction and the ones without. Select any drug for the full detail.

0Major
814Moderate
0Minor
2,015No known interaction
814 Moderate 2,015 No interaction
Moderate

814 interactions

Showing 60 of 814 moderate interactions — see all 814 on the Lentinan page.

No interaction 2,015 drugs checked — show the list

We also checked Lentinan against these medications and found no known interaction in our sources. Open any page to confirm.

Showing the 60 most looked-up of 2,015 medications checked with no known interaction — see the full Lentinan list.

See the full Lentinan interactions page
See every supplement checked against Tocilizumab, ranked by severity
Evidence & sources

Lentinan References

The 19 references that drive our Lentinan monograph and interaction data, from the evidence-graded Natural Medicines (TRC Healthcare) database. Citations with a link open the study on PubMed or the publisher’s site.

  1. The Review of Natural Products by Facts and Comparisons. St. Louis, MO: Wolters Kluwer Co., 1999.
  2. Gordon M, Guralnik M, Kaneko Y, et al. A phase II controlled study of a combination of the immune modulator, lentinan, with didanosine (ddI) in HIV patients with CD4 cells of 200-500/mm3. J Med 1995;26:193-207.
  3. Yoshiyuki T, Onda M, Tokunaga A, et al. [Treatment for peritoneal dissemination of gastric cancer by intraperitoneal administration of CDDP through Infuse-a-Port]. Gan To Kagaku Ryoho 1994;21:2323-5.
  4. Tari K, Satake I, Nakagomi K, et al. [Effect of lentinan for advanced prostate carcinoma]. Hinyokika Kiyo 1994;40:119-23.
  5. Nishihira T, Akimoto M, Mori S. [Anti-cancer effects of BRMs associated with nutrition in cancer patients]. Gan To Kagaku Ryoho,1988;15:1615-20.
  6. Wada T, Nishide T, Hatayama K, et al. [A comparative clinical trial with tegafur plus lentinan treatment at two different doses in advanced cancer]. Gan To Kagaku Ryoho 1987;14:2509-11.
  7. Taguchi T. Clinical efficacy of lentinan on patients with stomach cancer: end point results of a four-year follow-up survey. Cancer Detect Prev Suppl 1987;1:333-49.
  8. Gordon M, Bihari B, Goosby E, et al. A placebo-controlled trial of the immune modulator, lentinan, in HIV-positive patients: a phase I/II trial. J Med 1998;29:305-30.
  9. Hazama, S., Watanabe, S., Ohashi, M., Yagi, M., Suzuki, M., Matsuda, K., Yamamoto, T., Suga, Y., Suga, T., Nakazawa, S., and Oka, M. Efficacy of orally administered superfine dispersed lentinan (beta-1,3-glucan) for the treatment of advanced colorectal c
  10. Zhang D, Zheng J, Ni M, et al. Comparative efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal injections combined with the FOLFOX regimen for treating gastric cancer in China: a network meta-analysis. Oncotarget. 2017;8(40):68873-68889. PubMed
  11. Wang H, Cai Y, Zheng Y, Bai Q, Xie D, Yu J. Efficacy of biological response modifier lentinan with chemotherapy for advanced cancer: a meta-analysis. Cancer Med. 2017;6(10):2222-2233. PubMed
  12. Yoshino S, Nishikawa K, Morita S, et al. Randomised phase III study of S-1 alone versus S-1 plus lentinan for unresectable or recurrent gastric cancer (JFMC36-0701). Eur J Cancer. 2016;65:164-71. PubMed
  13. Yin X, Ying J, Li L, Zhang H, Wang H. A meta-analysis of lentinan injection combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of nonsmall cell lung cancer. Indian J Cancer. 2015;52 Suppl 1:e29-31. PubMed
  14. Wang JL, Bi Z, Zou JW, Gu XM. Combination therapy with lentinan improves outcomes in patients with esophageal carcinoma. Mol Med Rep. 2012;5(3):745-8. PubMed
  15. Lin Y, Wei Y, Hu X, et al. Evaluation of lentinan effects on cytochrome P450 activity in rats by a cocktail method. Iran J Basic Med Sci. 2019;22(3):296-301.

Medication overviews come from MedlinePlus (NIH); supplement label data from the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database. Content is written and reviewed by licensed HelloPharmacist pharmacists — see our data sources and editorial standards.

Pharmacist Counseling Corner

Taking Lentinan and Tocilizumab Together: Common Questions

Is it safe to take Lentinan with Tocilizumab?
We do not list a known interaction between Lentinan and Tocilizumab. That does not guarantee the combination is risk-free, so confirm with your pharmacist or doctor — especially if you take other medications or have a health condition.
Do Lentinan and Tocilizumab have any of the same side effects?
Yes — our sources link each of them separately to 8 of the same effects. That is not an interaction: neither changes how your body handles the other. It does mean that if one of those effects turns up, it can be harder to tell which one is behind it. They are listed on this page with the source behind each.
How was the Lentinan and Tocilizumab combination checked?
Interactions in our licensed database are recorded against drug classes. Tocilizumab is filed under 2 classifications, and Lentinan has documented interactions with 8 drug classes — none of Tocilizumab's classifications are among them. A medication can belong to classes beyond those recorded in our dataset, so this describes how the check was run rather than guaranteeing safety.
Does Lentinan interact with any other medications?
Yes. Lentinan has 814 documented drug interactions in our database — Tocilizumab is simply not one of them. If you take anything else, it is worth checking each one; they are all listed on this page.
Does Tocilizumab interact with any supplements?
Yes. Tocilizumab has documented interactions with 89 supplements in our database — Lentinan is not one of them. The Tocilizumab interaction page linked on this page lists every one, ranked by severity.

Written and reviewed by the HelloPharmacist editorial staff. Our editorial policy

Where next

Keep Exploring

Lentinan monograph Uses, safety profile, and every drug interaction in one place Tocilizumab Injection drug information The full plain-English guide to this medication Tocilizumab supplement interactions Every supplement checked against Tocilizumab, ranked by severity Supplement interaction checker Check any supplement or product against your medications Browse medications A–Z Every drug we’ve checked against herbs & supplements References The 19 citations behind this page Ask a pharmacist Free, personal answer from our licensed team

Still Have a Question About Tocilizumab and Lentinan?

Our pharmacists answer your medication & supplement questions — free.

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This information is for education only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always check with your pharmacist or doctor before starting, stopping, or combining supplements and medications.