Qi Fanghua, Zhao Lin, Zhou Aiyan, Zhang Bo, Li Anyuan, Wang Zhixue, Han Junqing
Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shandong Provincial Hospital affiliated to Shandong University.
Biosci Trends. 2015 Feb;9(1):16-34. doi: 10.5582/bst.2015.01019.
Recent studies indicate that Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) can play an important role in the whole course of cancer treatment such as recovery stages of post-operative, radiotherapy or chemotherapy stages instead of only terminal stage of cancer. In this review, we have summarized current evidence for using TCM as adjuvant cancer treatment in different stages of cancer lesions. Some TCMs (e.g., TJ-41, Liu-jun-zi-tang, PHY906, Coumarin, and Aescine) are capable of improving the post-operative symptoms such as fatigue, pain, appetite, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and lymphedema. Some TCMs (e.g., Ginseng, Huang-Qi, BanZhiLian, TJ-48, Huachansu injection, Shenqi fuzheng injection, and Kanglaite injection) in combination with chemo- or radio-therapy are capable of enhancing the efficacy of and diminishing the side effects and complications caused by chemo- and radiotherapy. Taken together, they have great advantages in terms of suppressing tumor progression, relieving surgery complications, increasing the sensitivity of chemo- and radio- therapeutics, improving an organism's immune system function, and lessening the damage caused by surgery, chemo- or radio-therapeutics. They have significant effects on relieving breast cancer-related lymphedema, reducing cancer-related fatigue and pain, improving radiation pneumonitis and gastrointestinal side effects, protecting liver function, and even ameliorating bone marrow suppression. This review of those medicines should contribute to an understanding of Chinese herbal medicines as an adjunctive therapy in the whole course of cancer treatment instead of only terminal stage of cancer, by providing useful information for development of more effective anti-cancer drugs and making more patients "survival with cancer" for a long time.
近期研究表明，中医在癌症治疗的全过程中都能发挥重要作用，比如在术后康复阶段、放疗或化疗阶段，而非仅在癌症晚期。在本综述中，我们总结了目前在癌症病变不同阶段使用中医作为辅助癌症治疗的证据。一些中药（如TJ - 41、六君子汤、PHY906、香豆素和七叶皂苷）能够改善术后症状，如疲劳、疼痛、食欲、腹泻、恶心、呕吐和淋巴水肿。一些中药（如人参、黄芪、半枝莲、TJ - 48、华蟾素注射液、参芪扶正注射液和康莱特注射液）与化疗或放疗联合使用时，能够增强疗效，并减少化疗和放疗引起的副作用及并发症。总体而言，它们在抑制肿瘤进展、缓解手术并发症、提高放化疗敏感性、改善机体免疫系统功能以及减轻手术、化疗或放疗造成的损伤方面具有巨大优势。它们对缓解乳腺癌相关淋巴水肿、减轻癌症相关疲劳和疼痛、改善放射性肺炎和胃肠道副作用、保护肝功能，甚至改善骨髓抑制都有显著效果。对这些药物的综述应有助于理解中药作为癌症治疗全过程而非仅癌症晚期的辅助治疗方法，为开发更有效的抗癌药物提供有用信息，并使更多患者能够长期“带癌生存”。
