Shenqi fuzheng, an injection concocted from chinese medicinal herbs, combined with platinum-based chemotherapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer: a systematic review

Abstract

BackgroundPlatinum-based chemotherapy has been a standard therapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but it has high toxicity. In China, Shenqi Fuzheng, a newly developed injection concocted from Chinese medicinal herbs has been reported that may increase efficacy and reduce toxicity when combined with platinum-based chemotherapy, but little is known about it outside of China. The aim of this study was to systematically review the existing clinical evidence on Shenqi Fuzheng Injection(SFI) combined with platinum-based chemotherapy for advanced NSCLC.MethodsPubmed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, CNKI, and CBM search were organized for all documents published, in English and Chinese, until April 2010. The randomized controlled clinical trials were selected based on specific criteria, in which a SFI plus platinum-based chemotherapy treatment group was compared with a platinum-based chemotherapy control group for patients with advanced NSCLC. The quality of studies was assessed by modified Jadad's scale, and Revman 4.2 software was used for data syntheses and analyses.ResultsTwenty nine studies were included in this review based on our selection criteria. Of them, ten studies were of high quality and the rest were of low quality, according to the modified Jadad scale. The meta-analysis showed there was a statistically significant higher tumor response (RR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.07 to 1.32; P = 0.001) and performance status ((RR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.45 to 1.70; P < 0.00001); but lower severe toxicity for WBC (RR, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.29 to 0.47; P < 0.00001), PLT (RR, 0.33; 95% CI, 0.21 to 0.52; P < 0.00001), HB (RR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.30 to 0.66; P < 0.0001) and nausea and vomiting (RR, 0.32; 95% CI, 0.22 to 0.47; P < 0.00001), when the SFI plus platinum-based chemotherapy treatment group was compared with the platinum-based chemotherapy control group. Sensitivity analysis was restricted to studies with the high quality, and the result was similar when the studies with low quality were excluded. Asymmetry was observed in a funnel plot analysis, and Egger's test also indicated an evidence of publication bias (P = 0.016).ConclusionsSFI intervention appears to be useful to increase efficacy and reduce toxicity when combined with platinum-based chemotherapy for advanced NSCLC, although this result needs to be further verified by more high-quality trials.

Immuno-enhancement effects of Shenqi Fuzheng Injection on cyclophosphamide-induced immunosuppression in Balb/c mice

“…The traditional functions of both Radix Codonopsis and Radix Astragali are in enhancing immune function (Cho and Leung, 2007;Chan et al, 2008;Zhang et al, 2010). Some other previous studies have also demonstrated that SFI exhibited anti-tumor synergy effects accompanied by chemotherapy in tumor-bearing murine model and clinical application (Dai et al, 2008;Dong et al, 2010;Zhu et al, 2010), some of which have shown that SFI may play an important role in chemotherapy, such as improving quality of life, tumor response, performance status, and reducing the toxicity of chemotherapy. However, the in vivo efficacy of SFI on immunological effector cells, which play a key role against tumor growth under immunosuppression, is poorly understood.…”

Matrine induces the apoptosis of lung cancer cells through downregulation of inhibitor of apoptosis proteins and the Akt signaling pathway

“…In particular, herbs used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) are gaining wider recognition in recent years as an underexploited source for potential therapeutic compounds (4,5). Matrine ( Fig.…”

The advantages of using traditional Chinese medicine as an adjunctive therapy in the whole course of cancer treatment instead of only terminal stage of cancer

“…2015; 9(1): 16-34. increasing complete remission and partial remission efficacy rate, and decreasing adverse events such as nausea, vomiting, oral mucositis, and leucopenia. Moreover, Shenqi fuzheng injection intervention appeared to be useful to increase efficacy and reduce toxicity when combined with platinum-based chemotherapy for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and colorectal cancer (12,70). In addition, the combination of concurrent chemoradiotherapy with Shenqi fuzheng injection in patients with head and neck neoplasms could effectively enhance immunity with the levels of CD3, CD4, and CD4/CD8 increased, improve quality of life, and decrease adverse events such as nausea, vomiting, oral mucositis, skin lesions, and leucopenia (71).…”