Abstract
We evaluated the effect of red ginseng on toxicity, health-related quality of life (HRQL) and survival after adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). A total of 30 patients with EOC were randomly assigned to placebo (n = 15) and red ginseng groups (n = 15). All patients took placebo or red ginseng (3000 mg/day) for three months. Then, we compared changes of genotoxicity, HRQL and survival between the two groups. As a result, red ginseng reduced micronuclei yield in comparison with placebo despite no difference of binucleated cells index. Although red ginseng increased serum levels of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase significantly, they were within the normal value. Moreover, there were no differences in adverse events between placebo and red ginseng groups. In terms of HRQL, red ginseng was associated with improved emotional functioning and decreased symptoms of fatigue, nausea and vomiting, and dyspnea, reduced anxiety and interference affecting life and improved daytime somnolence. However, there was no effect of red ginseng on prognosis of EOC. Conclusively, red ginseng may be safe and effective to reduce genotoxicity and improve HRQL despite no benefit of survival in patients with EOC who received chemotherapy.
Highlights
Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most lethal disease among malignancies developed in the female genital tract because of no effective screening method for early detection
We evaluated the effect of red ginseng on survival in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC)
We found that there was no difference of the reduction of binucleated cells (BN) index between red ginseng and placebo
Summary
Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most lethal disease among malignancies developed in the female genital tract because of no effective screening method for early detection. About 80% of patients are diagnosed at advanced-stage disease, which leads to poor prognosis [1]. In addition to oncologic outcomes, psychological stress as well as reduced physical activity are very important during the treatment of EOC because they lead to poor health-related quality of life (HRQL) including cancer-related fatigue, and reduce physical and social function, which has an influence on the prognosis of patients with EOC [2,3,4]. A developed state of oxidative stress, directly or indirectly caused by numerous drugs, induces various types of genotoxicity such as DNA adducts, gene mutations and chromosomal aberrations [7]
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