The clinical efficacy and safety of kanglaite adjuvant therapy in the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma: A PRISMA-compliant meta-analysis

Abstract

Kanglaite, a type of Chinese medicine preparation, is considered a promising complementary therapy option for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Although an analysis of the published literature has been performed, the exact effects and safety are yet to be systematically investigated. Therefore, we conducted a wide-ranging online search of electronic databases to provide systematic conclusions; data from 31 trials with 2315 HCC patients were included. The results indicated that compared with conventional treatment (CT) alone, the combination of kanglaite with CT markedly prolonged patients’ 6-month overall survival (OS, P=0.003), 12-month OS (P<0.0001), 18-month OS (P=0.003), 24-month OS (P=0.03) and 36-month OS (P=0.0006) and significantly improved the overall response rate (odds ratio (OR) = 2.57, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.10–3.16, P<0.00001) and disease control rate (OR = 3.10, 95% CI = 2.42–3.97, P<0.00001) of patients. The quality of life (QoL), clinical symptoms and immune function of patients were also obviously improved after combined treatment. The incidence rates of nausea and vomiting (P=0.04), hepatotoxicity (P=0.0002), leukopenia (P<0.00001), thrombocytopenia (P<0.0001), gastrointestinal side effects (P=0.01) and fever (P<0.0009) were lower in the group receiving CT and kanglaite than in the group receiving CT alone. In summary, the combination of kanglaite and CT is safe and more effective in treating HCC than is CT alone, and its application in the clinic is worth promoting.

Aidi Injection, Compound Kushen Injection, or Kanglaite Injection: Which Is the Best Partner with Systemic Chemotherapy for Patients with HCC? A Network Meta‐Analysis

“…The main active ingredient of Kanglaite injection is a triglyceride, which contains four types of fatty acids [ 41 ]. Kanglaite injection was first approved in 1997 in China for the treatment of HCC and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a phase III clinical trial in 2015 [ 42 ]. A clinical study with 156 HCC patients comparing Kanglaite injection with systemic chemotherapy showed that Kanglaite injection had similar efficacy and safety when compared to chemotherapy.…”

Efficacy and safety of Chinese patent medicine (Kang-ai injection) as an adjuvant in the treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: a meta-analysis

“…Regardless of the advances in diagnostic methods, early detection of HCC remains a challenging endeavour (Liu et al. 2019 ; Anwanwan et al. 2020 ).…”

“…Moreover, a considerable number of patients with liver cancer progress to the intermediate or advanced stages, and the five-year survival rate is less than 17% (Liu et al. 2019 ; Zhu et al. 2019 ).…”

“…However, potentially curative surgical resection is possible in only a small proportion of patients with HCC (Liu et al. 2019 ). Furthermore, it is universally acknowledged that the long-term use of Western medicine might occasionally cause drug resistance and toxic side effects.…”

Efficacy and safety of Kanglaite injection for gastric cancer

“…[ 16 , 17 ] Millions cancer patients in more than 2000 hospitals in China have been treated with Kanglaite injection. [ 18 ] It has been widely used for the treatment of Pancreatic cancer, [ 19 , 20 ] lung cancer, [ 21 , 22 ] breast cancer, [ 23 ] colorectal cancer, [ 24 ] hepatocellular carcinoma, [ 25 ] and GC. [ 26 , 27 ] Researches showed that Kanglaite injection could effectively reverse multiple-drug resistance in cancer cells and enhance the sensitivity of tumor cells to chemotherapeutic drugs.…”