Traditional Chinese medicine combined with other therapies for treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma in clinical trials

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors worldwide with a high mortality, and still there are only few effective methods to treat it. To this end, alternative medicines from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are being investigated for their ability to eliminate the tumor or halt its progression. A large number of studies have shown that TCM can be an effective approach to treat the HCC in clinical trials when used alone or in combination with other therapies. Thus, TCM has made significant progress, and has begun to gain worldwide popularity for promoting healthcare and HCC treatment. Because of this progress, periodic summaries are needed to facilitate further research for the use of TCM to treat HCC. This paper provides a comprehensive summary of this work with regard to the following aspects: herbalist views on the etiology and therapeutic principles for treatment of HCC, treating HCC by TCM alone, treating HCC with TCM in combination with resection, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and interventional therapy, and other therapies. Additionally, the current main problems and future application prospects for treatment of HCC by TCM described, which could provide scientific guidance for clinician as well as references for the treatment of other cancers.