The effectiveness of anticancer traditional Korean medicine treatment on the survival in patients with lung, breast, gastric, colorectal, hepatic, uterine, or ovarian cancer

Abstract

Although anticancer traditional Korean medicine treatment (ACTKMT) is widely applied to patients with cancer together with, or in place of, conventional cancer treatment in Korea, the cohort evidence on its clinical effects is lacking. Therefore, this prospective cohort study is designed to evaluate the effect of ACTKMT on the survival and the clinical outcomes for patients being treated at an integrative oncology clinic.This is a single center, prospective cohort study of patients within 1 year after the diagnosis of primary lung, breast, gastric, colorectal, hepatic, uterine, or ovarian cancer. The event-free survival, disease-free survival/progression-free survival, the overall survival, the results of blood tests, and telomere-length information will be compared between patients receiving and patients not receiving a key ACTKMT (HangAmDan-B1, Geonchil-jung, and/or cultivated wild ginseng pharmacopuncture), and the correlation between the use of the key ACTKMT and the prognosis will be identified considering other risk factors.This study has received ethical approval from the Institutional Review Board, Dunsan Korean Medicine Hospital of Daejeon University (No. DJDSKH-16-BM-09). The results of this study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.Clinical Research Information Service: KCT0002160.

Telomere length: biological marker of cellular vitality, aging, and health-disease process

“…Functioning as an important biomarker of cellular vitality or activity, longevity or aging, and the health-disease process, measuring the telomere length of leukocytes DNA extracted from peripheral blood 67 provides clinical and dynamic parameters of health and well-being and can be used as a diagnostic and prognostic method of the illness process 31,[68][69][70] , as well as measuring the efficacy and effectiveness of various therapies employed, conventional 71 or nonconventional (e.g., homeopathy 72 , acupuncture 73 , and meditation 74 ).…”

HMT Inhibits Prostate Cancer Progression by Targeting PAK-1.

“…Recent studies investigating the antitumor effect of natural products suggested that they may lead to promising alternative therapy for the treatment of cancer. Traditional Chinese or Korean medicine is widely accepted as an alternative treatment for cancer [24][25][26]. Furthermore, research on traditional Chinese and Korean medicinal and herbal formulations has been recognized internationally by medical researchers [27], and several studies elucidated the molecular and cellular mechanisms of herbal medicine-derived phytochemicals in the context of cancer research [28][29][30].…”

Global Trends in Research on Wild-Simulated Ginseng: Quo Vadis?

“…WSG is known by different names, including WSG, wild-cultivated ginseng, mountain-cultivated ginseng, and forest-cultivated ginseng, among others. In this study, we use the term Forests 2021, 12, 664 2 of 20 WSG because it is officially used by the governments of the Republic of Korea, USA, and Canada [3][4][5]. We define WSG as the ginseng grown under trees in mountain areas via artificial transplantation of seeds or seedlings.…”

“…Other components of WSG include volatile oil, sugar, starch, pectin, and minerals [6]. WSG contains many functional components that exert excellent effects on human health, such as anti-obesity activity [7], activation of the sympathetic nervous system [8], anti-fatigue activity [9], memory loss improvement [10], spatial cognitive ability improvement [11], cancer prevention, anti-cancer activity [12], and liver functional resistance [13]. Since the health effects of WSG are more recognized than those of cultivated ginseng [14], WSG is mostly produced only as a health supplement [15].…”

“…Due to the greater use of WSG, many studies have been conducted on its growth conditions and characteristics. Many studies have also been conducted on farming locations [18], harvest, growth [19], effectiveness [7][8][9][10][11][12][13], and identification of genetic traits [20] and genome sequences [21]. Research trend analysis reflects academic orientation based on the aggregate results of integrating and analyzing key topics or values investigated in previous studies, such as medicine [22], education [23], forestry [24], and cultivated ginseng [25,26].…”