Lung Cancer Cachexia Clinical Studies Of Tcm

Malignant carcinomas are consumption diseases. The patients will become to the cachexia owing to nutritional deficiency with the developing of tumor. Over 50% terminal patients were died of cachexia. Recently, there were new discovers that some internal cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin-1 (IL-1), interleukin-6 (IL-6), mediated the cachexia. The progestogens were used as treatment or preventive but the effects were not satisfactory.The Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) had important concept of preventing from the disease occurring. The TCM was considered more effective in therapy to mid-term or terminal tumor patients. It is deduced that the TCM will have important effect in cachexia therapy. There is no systemic study about TCM and cachexia. This study aims at formulating the differentiation of syndromes of cachexia in lung cancer by analyzing lung cancer patients with cachexia. On the other hand, related cytokines TNF, IL-1, IL-6 were examined to find out the correlation between those cytokines and differentiation of syndromes.The lung cancer patients who were hospitalized during Jan. 1995 to Jan. 2002 were researched and 113 patients were chosen. IL-1, IL-6 , and TNF-ain cachexia patients with different syndromes were examined.After analyzing the reasons of cachexia, the differentiation of syndromes of cachexia, and the relationship between syndromes and cytokines, the conclusions are made as follows:1. The main reasons leading to cachexia are: disease developing (49. 09%), nutritional deficiency (35.91%), protein losing (7.73%), and excessively treatment (7.27%). It shows that most cachexias are owing to disease developing.2. The most common type in lung cancer patients before cachexia is Insufficiency of Qi and accumulation of Phlegm-dampness while after cachexia it is Deficiency of both Qi and Yin. It shows that every type can converse into Deficiency of both Qi and Yin during the progress of cachexia. So it is prompted that the key step to prevent patients from cachexia is avoiding deficiency of Yin and Qi. Invigoration Qi and enrich Yin are the principles of preventing and treating cachexia.The differentiations of syndromes in lung cancer patients with cachexia are different from those in common lung caner patients. There is no type of Hyperactivity of heat and excessive pathogens in cachexia patients. And Depletion of Fei Qi is the common syndrome in terminal cachexia. 3. IMF in the type of Internal heat due to deficiency of Yin and the type of Deficiency of both Yin and Qi are remarkably higher than other types (P<0. 001). It is deduced that TNF is related with deficiency of Yin and deficiency of Yin predispose lung cancer patients to cachexia There is no significant difference of IL-6 in those types. It is assumed IL-6 is probably related with deficiency of Qi but this should be researched by farther study.