scholarly journals Chinese Herbal Medicine for Reducing Chemotherapy-Associated Side-Effects in Breast Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sha Li ◽  
Tsz-him So ◽  
Guoyi Tang ◽  
Hor-Yue Tan ◽  
Ning Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Side Effects ◽  
Herbal Medicine ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Chinese Herbal Medicine ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Chemotherapeutic Agents ◽  
Breast Cancer Patients ◽  
Chinese Herbal

BackgroundChemotherapy usually induces a variety of side-effects in cancer treatment as it cannot tell normal cells apart from cancer cells and kills both. Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) has been regarded as a potential effective intervention for relieving the side-effects of chemotherapy in breast cancer patients.ObjectiveThis study aims to conduct a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy of CHM as adjuvant therapy for reducing the chemotherapy-induced side-effects in the treatment of breast cancer.MethodsMain electronic databases were searched up to May 2020 for Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) evaluating the effect of CHM on breast cancer patients with chemotherapy. The PRISMA statement was adopted in this study and meta-analyses were performed.ResultsThe included studies showed unsatisfied quality. Results based on available literature indicated that the adjunctive use of CHM with chemotherapy may reduce the chemotherapeutic agents-associated adverse events, including nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, alopecia, myelosuppression, and impaired immune function.ConclusionA confident conclusion could not be have due to the lack of large scale and high quality trials.

scholarly journals Efficacy and Safety of Chinese Herbal Medicine on Treatment of Breast Cancer: A Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Venice Wing-Tung Ho ◽  
Hor-Yue Tan ◽  
Wei Guo ◽  
Sha Li ◽  
Ning Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Herbal Medicine ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Chinese Herbal Medicine ◽  
Tumor Response ◽  
Controlled Trials ◽  
Breast Cancer Patients ◽  
Who Criteria ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Chinese Herbal

Breast cancer is currently the most common cancer in women, and it accounts for 11.6% of all cancer diagnoses in 2018. Breast cancer patients frequently resort to alternative medicine in addition to conventional Western therapy. This study is to evaluate clinical effectiveness of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) on breast cancer by conducting meta-analyses on 81 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with a total of 7215 subjects from eight databases. All RCTs compared patients using Western therapy alone and those using additional CHM therapy to evaluate the difference of primary (tumor response, mean time to progression (mTTP), overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS)) and secondary outcome measures (tumor markers). Results showed that under the RECIST1.1 criteria, 52% patients with additional CHM therapy (67%, under WHO criteria) achieved either a complete response (CR) or a partial response (PR), compared to 38% patients with Western therapy alone (53%, under the WHO criteria). The risk ratio was 1.31 ([Formula: see text]¡ 0.00001, 95% CI = 1.15–1.50) for patients with CHM plus Western therapy and 1.25 ([Formula: see text]¡ 0.00001, 95% CI = 1.18–1.98) for those with Western therapy. Moreover, patients with complementary CHM therapy were associated with an mTTP of 2.79 months longer ([Formula: see text]¡ 0.00001) and an OS of 1.90 months longer ([Formula: see text] ¡ 0.00001); they also had an increase in 3-year PFS ([Formula: see text]= 0.002), 2- ([Formula: see text]= 0.0002) and 5-year ([Formula: see text]= 0.006) OS rates. Therefore, complementary CHM therapy might demonstrate clinical benefits for breast cancer patients in terms of tumor response and survival. Clinical studies with further stratification of tumor stages and intervention types are highly warranted.

Herbal medicine to treat the side effects of chemotherapy in breast cancer patients: Systematic review

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayoung Oh ◽  
Eun-Hye Kim ◽  
Jong-Hoon Kim ◽  
Sung-Eun Hong ◽  
Min-Kyung Hyun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Side Effects ◽  
Herbal Medicine ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Breast Cancer Patients

scholarly journals Chinese Herbal Medicine as Adjunctive Therapy to Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Sun ◽  
Xing Zhang ◽  
Jia-Yun Nian ◽  
Jiao Guo ◽  
Yi Yin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Herbal Medicine ◽  
Randomized Controlled Trials ◽  
Chinese Herbal Medicine ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Controlled Trials ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Chinese Herbal

Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) has been increasingly employed during therapy for breast cancer, but its efficacy remains a matter of debate. This systematic review examined randomized controlled trials to provide a critical evaluation of this treatment. The results demonstrated that the combined use of CHM with chemotherapy may improve the immediate tumor response and reduce chemotherapy-associated adverse events. Our findings highlight the poor quality of Chinese studies, and additional well-designed randomized controlled trials addressing the role of CHM are warranted. The lack of molecular-based evidence for CHM and Zheng has resulted in a limited understanding and acceptance of CHM and traditional Chinese medicine in Western countries. We believe that researchers should immediately explore a CHM-based cure, and CHM should be applied to routine care as soon as conclusive data are available.

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