Lung cancer Ⅳ recipe combined with chemotherapy in treating non-small cell lung cancer in the elderly: a case-control study / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the therapeutic effect of lung cancer Ⅳ recipe combined with chemotherapy on treating middle and advanced stages of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the elderly.Methods A total of 77 NSCLC patients in middle and advanced stages aged 70 years and over who had heat-toxin syndrome in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) were selected from Apr.2013 to Oct.2014 in our hospital.Patients were randomly divided into chemotherapy group (n=39) and chemotherapy + herbs group (n=38).Karnofsky assessment scale (KPS),effective rate,symptom and sign in traditional Chinese medicine,changes in the levels of high-sensitivity c-reactive protein (hs-CRP),carcino embryonic antigen (CEA),neuron specific enolase (NSE),tumor special growth factor (TSGF) were observed before and 1 and 56 days after treatment.Results There was no significant difference in effective rate between the two groups (P＞0.05).The KPS and symptom and sign in TCM were improved significantly in chemotherapy + herbs group as compared with chemotherapy group (36.7 ％ vs.26.5 ％,80.0 ％ vs.58.8 ％,respectively (x2 =2.721,6.731,both P＜0.05).There were no significant differences in hs-CRP,NSE,CEA,TSGF levels between two groups before and after treatment (P＞0.05),but hs-CRP level in both groups was decreased after treatment as compared to pre-treatment and the decvease was more obvious in chemotherapy + herbs group (51.47％ vs.23.77％,x2 =19.713,P＜0.05).Conclusions Lung cancer Ⅳ recipe can improve the main clinical symptoms,quality of life and tolerance to chemotherapy in NSCLC patients with heat-toxin manifestation in TCM.There is a correlation between heat-toxin syndrome and hsCRP level in NSCLC patients,which shows that hs-CRP probably is the material basis of the heattoxin syndrome in TCM.