Open AccessTraditional Herbal Medicine as Adjunctive Therapy for Nasopharyngeal Cancer
Author(s) -
Woojin Kim,
Won-Bock Lee,
Jungwoo Lee,
Byung-Il Min,
HyangSook Lee,
Seung-Hun Cho
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
integrative cancer therapies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.73
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1552-695X
pISSN - 1534-7354
DOI - 10.1177/1534735415572881
Subject(s) - medicine , randomized controlled trial , nasopharyngeal carcinoma , nasopharyngeal cancer , meta analysis , cancer , adjunctive treatment , traditional chinese medicine , clinical trial , alternative medicine , oncology , traditional medicine , radiation therapy , pathology
The effectiveness of traditional herbal medicine (THM) as treatment for nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) has not been clearly demonstrated. The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of THM as adjunctive therapies for NPC using the results of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Five electronic databases, including English and Chinese databases, were systematically searched up to February 2014. All RCTs involving traditional herbal medicine in combination with conventional cancer therapy for NPC were included. Twenty-two RCTs involving 2,298 NPC patients were systematically reviewed. Of these 22 studies, 15 on 1482 patients reported a significant increase in the number surviving patients with survivals of more than 1, 3, or 5 years. Seven studies on 595 patients reported a significant increase in immediate tumor response, and three studies on 505 patients reported a significant decrease in distant metastasis. This meta-analysis of 22 studies suggests that THM combined with conventional therapy can provide an effective adjunctive therapy for NPC. More research and well-designed, rigorous, large clinical trials are required to address these issues