A Study On The Traditional Chinese Medicine Therapy Of Kidney-yang Deficiency In Liver Cancer

Objective:Liver has some characteristics compared with other cancers, such as being usually discovered in the advanced stage, difficulty of diagnosis in the early stage, difficulty of treatment, rapid development and poor prognosis. With the continuous development of chemotherapeutic drugs for liver cancer, the chemotherapy not only lowers the immunity of the body due to myelosuppression, but also results in problems such as nausea, vomiting and weakness, which could lower the quality of life and bring the patient great inconvenience. As a result, comprehensive therapy is a highly praised pattern to improve the level of liver cancer treatment. After various chemotherapy regimens are applied, it is of great importance to adopt the traditional Chinese medicine therapy to enhance the immunity after chemotherapy, improve clinical symptoms as well as the quality of life and relieve the toxic and side effects of chemotherapy. The study aims to observe the therapeutic effect of Shuangxian prescription prepared by supervisor Zhang Xinhai on kidney-yang deficiency caused by the chemotherapy of liver cancer and then evaluate the curative effect of Shuangxian prescription on the kidney-yang deficiency in liver cancer using the changes of patient’s clinical symptoms, immunity of the body and the quality of life as the indicators, so as to provide evidence-based basis for the comprehensive treatment of liver cancer by traditional Chinese medicine. Methods:The72cases of out-patients and in-patients with liver cancer who received treatment in the Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine Hospital of Sichuan Province during March2011to January2013and met the inclusion criteria were selected as the subjects, and they were randomly divided into traditional Chinese medicine group, western medicine group and placebo group. All the medicines of three groups were used after application of chemotherapeutic drugs. Chinese medicine group:the medicine used was Shuangxian Chinese medicine decoction-free granules (Sichuan Neo-green Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd), method of administration:decoction of Shuangxian decoction-free granules, three times a day,100ml each time and continuously taken orally until the end of observation period. The western medicine group: Thymopeptide Enteric-coated Capsules were used,100ml, bid,(Shanghai Baolong Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd). The placebo group:substitute with the same appearance as western medicine but no therapeutic effect was used. The three groups of drugs above were continuously used for2cycles, with4weeks as a cycle. And the basic drugs used for liver cancer chemotherapy had the same types, dose, usage and course of treatment. Aspects such the change of immune indexes, score of life quality and improvement of clinical symptoms were observed. Results:Shuangxian prescription in the traditional Chinese medicine group had an advantage over the western medicine group and the placebo group in the aspects of improving the clinical adverse reactions caused by chemotherapy in liver cancer patients, decrease of cellular immunity and the score of life quality (P<0.05). Especially the Chinese medicine group had an obvious effect of increasing the T-lymphocyte subsets CD3+、CD4+、CD8+、 CD4+/CD8+, and this showed significant difference compared with the western medicine group and the placebo group (P<0.05). However, the level of CD3+、 CD4+、CD8+、CD4+/CD8+were relatively stable or even decrease in the western medicine group and placebo group. As for the tumor markers, the traditional Chinese medicine group showed a declining trend (P<0.05), while the western medicine group and the placebo group were relatively stable. And among the three groups, only the traditional Chinese medicine group occasionally had an adverse reaction of dry mouth while no other side effects were found.Conclusions:The Shuangxian prescription prepared by supervisor Zhang Xinhai could effectively increase the Karnofsky score of liver cancer patients after chemotherapy. It can also improve the adverse reactions of chemotherapy after liver cancer surgery, increasing the survival rate and improving the quality of life. Besides, it improves the cellular immunity of the body and enhances patients’confidence in treatment.