Medicinal herbs for esophageal cancer

Abstract

Esophageal cancer is the seventh leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Traditional Chinese medicinal herbs are sometimes used as an adjunct to radiotherapy or chemotherapy for this type of cancer. To assess the efficacy and possible adverse effects of the addition of Chinese medicinal herbs to treatment with radiotherapy or chemotherapy for esophageal cancer. We searched the Cochrane Upper Gastrointestinal and Pancreatic Diseases Group Trials Register, The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, AMED (Allied and Complementary Medicine Database), CBM (Chinese Biomedical Database), China National Knowledge Infrastructure, the Chinese Cochrane Centre Controlled Trials Register and CISCOM (The Research Council for Complementary Medicine) (up to June 2004). Databases of ongoing trials, the internet and reference lists were also searched. Randomised controlled trials comparing the use of radiotherapy or chemotherapy with and without the addition of Chinese medicinal herbs. At least two review authors extracted data and assessed trial quality. We identified 43 trials which claimed to use random allocation. Sixteen study authors were contacted by telephone and we discovered that they misunderstood the randomisation procedure and the trials were identified as non-RCTs. The situation of lack of authentic randomised controlled trial leads us cannot draw a conclusion to recommend or against the use of TCM as a treatment for esophageal cancer. There was no evidence of effect of TCM in the treatment of esophageal cancer due to no any authentic RCT in this field yet. New trials should be large scaled, correctly randomised and results assessor blinded in the future.