ABSTRACT
This study was aimed to verify the effect of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) dietary therapy in improving symptoms induced by chemotherapy.A total of 20 patients were included in the study according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria.The randomized autocontrol double-blind method was used in the trial.In group A,the dietary therapy was used in the first chemotherapy cycle,and the control therapy was used in the second chemotherapy cycle;and vice versa for group B.There were 3 cases fell out of the study.Finally,there were 8 cases in group A and 9 cases in group B.There were all together 17 patients.Observations were given on patients from both groups for 2 cycles.So the total observed case number was 34 person-time.Observations were given on differences of quality of life (QOL) and unpleasant symptoms (including fatigue,poor appetite,dry stool,loose stool,nausea and vomiting,night sweating,spontaneous sweating,dry mouth and throat,bitter taste in the mouth,pain,restlessness and irritable,insomnia and other symptoms) by TCM dietary therapy and control therapy on cancer patients during chemotherapy.The results showed that there was significant difference on the tenth day of chemotherapy from the QOL (P＜0.05).There was significant difference on the tenth day of chemotherapy from the total score of unpleasant symptoms (P＜0.05).Among them,there were significant differences on fatigue and poor appetite on the tenth day of chemotherapy (P＜0.05).It was concluded that TCM dietary therapy has certain effects in the improvement of patients' clinical symptoms during chemotherapy.On the tenth day of chemotherapy,the unpleasant symptoms of TCM dietary therapy group were lower than that of the control group (P＜0.05);the QOL score was higher in the treatment group than that of the control group (P＜0.05).After in-depth discussion,there was statistical significance on dietary therapy in improving fatigue and poor appetite in the dietary therapy group.It demonstrated that TCM dietary therapy help patients during chemotherapy.