Effectiveness and safety of herbal medicine for cancer‐related fatigue in lung cancer survivors: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Abstract

Approximately half of lung cancer patients (LCP) receiving chemotherapy are experiencing cancer‐related fatigue (CRF). In East Asia, herbal medicines (HMs) have been used as tonics due to their anti‐fatigue effect. This systematic review evaluated the effectiveness and safety of HMs for CRF in LCP. We comprehensively searched 12 electronic medical databases to search randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi‐RCTs investigating HMs for CRF in LCP, published up to September 2019. The primary outcome was the fatigue severity. Secondary outcomes included patients' quality of life (QOL), activities of daily life (ADL), and incidence of adverse events. Cochrane's risk of bias tool assessed the methodological quality of included RCTs. The risk ratio or mean difference was estimated with 95% confidence intervals by performing a meta‐analysis. Twelve RCTs with 861 participants were included. Compared to conventional medicine alone, HM combined with conventional medicine significantly improved fatigue level, QOL, and ADL. As monotherapy, HM significantly improved ADL compared with megestrol. No serious HM‐related adverse events were reported. Limited evidence suggests that HM could be effective and safe for CRF in LCP. However, further high‐quality RCTs are needed to confirm these findings owing to the small number and low methodological quality of the included studies.

Medical plants for lung cancer: an overview of current knowledge

“…A systematic review by Kwon et al assessed the effectiveness and safety of herbal medicines for cancerinduced fatigue in 861 lung cancer patients. It has been observed that herbal medicines combined with conventional medicine significantly improved fatigue levels, quality of life, and activities of daily living compared to traditional medicine alone (18).…”

Chinese herbal medicine for post-viral fatigue: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials

“…At present, although there is no direct evidence for the usage rate of CHM in the treatment of post-viral fatigue, but in the past few decades, it has been widely used in clinic and achieved certain results in the treatment of cancer-related fatigue (CRF) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Evidence suggests that CHM can clearly decreased 1.77 scores in fatigue scale-14 (FS-14) scores as an adjuvant or monotherapy for CFS [ 22 ] and significantly lowered 1.47 scores in Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI) global score for CRF [ 23 ]. Meanwhile take Ginseng for example [ 24 ], up to now, various clinical practice and animal-based experiments have already confirmed the safe anti-fatigue effects of Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma, as well as its components.…”

Current status of herbal medicine research for respiratory diseases induced by particulate matter: a protocol for a scoping review

“…To overcome the limitations and lack of evidence of conventional medicines available for the prevention and/or management of respiratory symptoms caused by PM, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and herbal medicine treatment strategies have garnered increased interest. Several systematic reviews on the effects of herbal medicines for respiratory diseases, such as COPD, asthma, and lung cancer, have been published [14][15][16]. However, there are few studies on lung disease induced by PM.…”