Qikui Decoction in Adjuvant Chemotherapy Improves the Prognosis of Patients

One of the most often encountered malignancies in clinics is Lung Cancer (LC), which develops from the bronchial mucosa or glands of the lungs. Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma (NSCLC) is the predominate kind, accounting for more than 85% of LC4, and is the most lethal of modern cancers, causing enormous suffering. However, because of the subtle early signs, most patients do not experience any symptoms until cancer has advanced to the middle and late stages, missing the ideal opportunity for surgical resection. Chemotherapy is the backbone of treatment for advanced NSCLC at this point. To slow the spread of the disease, Cisplatin (DDP) and other regimens were used to kill tumour cells and limit tumour cell DNA synthesis.

Based on the principle of Qikui recipe in TCM, hypothesize that Qikui decoction in adjuvant chemotherapy for advanced NSCLC, combined with TCM and western medicine, may have unique therapeutic advantages in treating the disease. This research provides a more effective scheme and reference for clinical treatment of advanced NSCLC and increases the clinical treatment level of LC.

The Jiangsu Province Hospital of Chinese Medicine's Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine conducted the study. 100 patients with advanced NSCLC were included in the trial and received hospital-based treatment with paclitaxel and Cisplatin (PTX/DDP). They were divided into two groups based on various treatment plans: the observation group (OG, n = 50), which received Qikui decoction in addition to chemotherapy based on the control group (CG, n = 50), and the control group (CG, n = 50), which received PTX+DDP treatment. The CG underwent systemic chemotherapy with a two-drug platinum regimen: Gemcitabine was used for 2 cycles, once every 3 weeks, for 5 months after taxol+DDP was used for 4 cycles, once every 3 weeks. SPSS 18.0 was used for all calculations, and GraphPad 8 softwarewas used to create all graphs.

Age, sex, Body Mass Index (BMI), and lesion diameter were compared between the two groups and found to be statistically insignificant. T lymphocyte subset levels were used to assess the immunological function of the patients in the two groups. The morbidity and mortality of LC have risen to the top among malignant tumours as China's industrialization has accelerated. Currently, most patients cannot receive a timely diagnosis and treatment owing to the non-specific early symptoms and the limitations of early diagnosis methods, which causes about 75% of cases to progress to advanced LC once detected. It was discovered that OG supplemented with Qikui decoction had a much greater overall response rate than CG, which suggested that adjuvant chemotherapy contributes to higher efficacy in advanced NSCLC patients.Patients with advanced NSCLC have weaker immune systems and weakened bodies, which slows down the metabolism of chemotherapy medications and increases the risk of major adverse reactions (ARs). Reviewing the earlier information reveals that Qikui decoction provides a variety of medicinal benefits, including spleen stimulation, lung miniaturization, kidney toxification, and blood replenishment and activation. The earliest tumour marker associated with LC is the CEA, which can accurately indicate patients' illness development. While CYFRA211 will be released during the development of tumour cells, NSE is commonly present in nerve tissues and neuron cells. The immunological function of patients was improvedby comparing the levels of CD4+, CD8+, and CD4+/CD8+ lymphocyte subsets in patients before and after treatment. To sum up, Qikui decoction in Adjuvant Chemotherapy for advanced NSCLC has definite clinical efficacy and can improve patient prognosis.

JOURNAL REFERENCE

Xu, J., N. Xiao, H.H. and X. Zhou, 2022. Clinical efficacy and prognostic influence of Qikui decoction in adjuvant chemotherapy for advanced non-small cell lung carcinoma. Int. J. Pharmacol., 18: 906-914.