a The University of Queensland, The School of Medicine, Translational Research Institute, Princess Alexandra Hospital , Ipswich Road, Woolloongabba , Australia.
b Medical Oncology Group of Australia, Queensland Clinical Oncology Group , Chermside , Australia.
Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2017 Apr 13;57(6):1107-1118. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2014.889081.
Chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy [CIPN] is a common significant and debilitating side-effect resulting from the administration of neurotoxic chemotherapeutic agents. These pharmaco-chemotherapeutics can include taxanes, vinca alkaloids, platinum analogues, and others. Moderate to severe CIPN significantly decreases the quality of life and physical abilities of cancer patients and current pharmacotherapy for CIPN e.g. Amifostine, and antidepressants have had limited efficacy and may themselves induce adverse side-effects.
To determine the potential use of herbal medicines as adjuvants in cancer treatments, a critical literature review was conducted by electronic and manual search on nine databases. These include PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Science Direct, Scopus, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Google Scholar, and two Chinese databases CNKI and CINAHL. Thirty-four studies were selected from 5614 studies assessed and comprising animal studies, case reports, retrospective studies, and minimal randomized clinical trials investigating the anti-CIPN effect of herbal medicines as the adjuvant intervention in patients administered chemotherapy. The thirty-four studies were assessed on methodological quality and limitations identified.
Studies were mixed in their recommendations for herbal medicines as an adjuvant treatment for CIPN.
Currently no agent has shown solid beneficial evidence to be recommended for the treatment or prophylaxis of CIPN. Given that the number of cancer survivors is increasing, the long-term side effects of cancer treatment, is of major importance.
化疗引起的周围神经病（CIPN）是一种常见的严重且使人虚弱的副作用，是由神经毒性化疗药物引起的。这些药物包括紫杉烷类、长春花生物碱、铂类似物等。中重度 CIPN 显著降低了癌症患者的生活质量和身体能力，目前针对 CIPN 的药物治疗，例如氨磷汀和抗抑郁药，疗效有限，而且可能本身会引起不良反应。
为了确定草药作为癌症治疗辅助药物的潜在用途，我们通过电子和手动搜索九个数据库进行了关键文献综述。这些数据库包括 PubMed、Cochrane 图书馆、Science Direct、Scopus、EMBASE、MEDLINE、Google Scholar 以及两个中文数据库中国知网和 CINAHL。从评估的 5614 项研究中选择了 34 项研究，这些研究包括动物研究、病例报告、回顾性研究和最小随机临床试验，调查了草药作为辅助干预在接受化疗的患者中抗 CIPN 作用。对 34 项研究进行了方法学质量评估，并确定了局限性。
研究对草药作为 CIPN 辅助治疗的建议不一。
目前尚无药物显示出对 CIPN 治疗或预防有确凿的有益证据。鉴于癌症幸存者人数不断增加，癌症治疗的长期副作用非常重要。
