Treatment of Advanced Non-small-Cell Lung Cancer with Qi-Nourishing Essence-Replenishing Chinese Herbal Medicine Combined with Chemotherapy

Abstract

BackgroundTo evaluate the effect of qi-nourishing essence-replenishing Chinese herbal medicine combined with chemotherapy in survival of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer(NSCLC) patients with essence and qi deficiency.MethodsA prospective multi-centered randomized controlled study was conducted, and 266 advanced NSCLC patients were enrolled. 126 patients in control group received Vinorelbine plus cisplatin(NP) chemotherapy combined with symptom-oriented Chinese herbs medication(without qi-nourishing essence-replenishing herbs);140 patients in experimental group received NP chemotherapy combined with qi-nourishing essence-replenishing Chinese herbal medication(Kangliu Zengxiao Decoction and modified Feiyanning Decoction, during and after chemotherapy respectively).ResultsOne patient in control and 2 in experimental group were excluded for failure to complete two cycles of chemotherapy. During follow-up, 17 and 7 patients in control and experimental group were excluded respectively(4 and 4 for taking Gefetinib after disease progression, 4 and 2 for receiving other chemotherapeutic regimens, 9 and 1 for lost to follow-up). 239 patients were included in the final analysis (131 in experimental group and 108 in control). Median overall survival in experimental group was significantly longer than control group (14.87vs.12.97 months,P = 0.027). In experimental and control group, 1-year, 3-year, 5-year, 7-year, and 9-year survival rates were 57% vs. 53%, 17% vs. 8%, 10% vs. 2%, 6% vs. 0%, and 6% vs. 0%, respectively.ConclusionQi-nourishing essence-replenishing Chinese herbal medicine combined with chemotherapy improves survival of advanced NSCLC patients with essence and qi deficiency.

Danshen Formulae for Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of High-Quality Randomized Controlled Trials

“…All the eligible studies were conducted in China, with four articles published in English [9–11, 13] and the rest in Chinese [8, 12, 14–20]) (Table 1). In this study, there are 6 related lung cancers [9–11, 14, 19, 20], 3 related to Leukemia [12, 17, 18], 3 related to Liver cancer [8, 15, 19], one related to breast or colon cancer [13], and one related to gastric cancer [17] (Table 2). Because leukemia is a kind of malignant clonal disease of hematopoietic stem cells and belongs to the category of cancer, this study also included the research of leukemia.…”

“…There were 10 RCTs with Overall response rate (RR) [8, 10–12, 14–19], 8 RCTs of them showed that Danshen formulae improved RR [10–14], and 2 RCTs suggested that Danshen formulae did not significantly improve RR [8, 11]. In 5 RCTs with survival rates, 4 RCTs of them indicated that Danshen Formulae improved survival rates [9, 15, 18, 20] and 1 RCT indicated that Danshen formulae did not significantly improve RR [8]. Seven RCTs were with side effects [10, 12–15, 17, 20] (Table 1).…”

“…Among the 13 RCTs, 3 different Danshen formulae dosage forms were mentioned, 1 was a granule [17], 1 was a tablet [14], and the rest were decoction [8–13, 15, 16, 18–20]. In 8 Danshen formulae, Danshen plays a major role [8, 9, 12, 14–16, 19, 20] and improves the survival rate of patients; in 3 Danshen formulae, Danshen plays play an auxiliary role [10, 17, 18] and, in 2 RCTs, the real effect is that of other medicinal materials [11, 13]. It should be noted that one study did not involve radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or surgical treatment [19], while the rest were combined Chinese and western medicine (Table 3).…”

Maintenance Chemotherapy With Chinese Herb Medicine Formulas vs. With Placebo in Patients With Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer After First-Line Chemotherapy: A Multicenter, Randomized, Double-Blind Trial

“…For patients with metastatic NSCLC, platinum-based chemotherapy combined with TCM was reported to significantly decrease the incident of nausea and vomiting, improve ECOG from 69 to 90% and show a better QoL variables score calculated by FACT-L subscales (Guo et al, 2017 ; Liao et al, 2017 ). Moreover, our previous studies have shown that CHMF enhances the chemotherapeutic effect, improve QoL and reduce the adverse effects of platinum-contained chemotherapeutics on NSCLC patients (Jiao et al, 2017 ; Wang et al, 2017 ; Gong et al, 2018 ).…”

Network Pharmacology-Based Identification of Pharmacological Mechanisms of Inula japonica Thunb. on Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

“…Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which is characterized by multiple compounds, targets, and pathways, has been widely combined with chemotherapy against NSCLC [12] [13] [14] [15]. TCM can not only relieve chemotherapy-related side effect but also prolong the survival time of patients [16].…”