Abstract
Chemotherapy is nowadays the main treatment of human cancers. Chemotherapeutic agents target rapidly dividing cancer cells to suppress tumor progression, however, their non-specific cytotoxicity often leads to significant side effects that might be intolerable to cancer patients. Multi-component herbal products have been used for thousands of years for the treatment of multiple human diseases. This study aims to systematically summarize and evaluate the experimental and clinical evidences of the efficacy of multi-component herbal products in improving chemotherapy-induced side effect. Literature was retrieved from PubMed database and evaluated based on the side effects described. Multi-component herbal products were found to be effective in ameliorating the neurotoxicity, gastrointestinal toxicity, hematological toxicity, cardiotoxicity, hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity. Both experimental and clinical evidences were found, indicating the potential of applying multicomponent herbal products in the clinical treatment of chemotherapy-induced side effects. However, the lack of mechanistic and pharmacokinetic studies, inconsistency in product quality, as well as insufficient clinical evidence suggested that more investigations are urgently necessary. In all, our review shed light on the potential of using multi-component herbal products in the clinical management of chemotherapy-induced toxicity and side effects. We also discussed the potential threats of natural products for cancer treatment and compared the advantages of using herbs to conventional chemical drugs.
Highlights
Cancer remains to be the leading cause of human death all over the world
Cyclophosphamide treatment can result in the decrease of leukomonocyte in spleen and the abnormal splenocytes gain and G. lucidum can alleviate these side effects. These results suggested that the reduction of quality of life (QOL) caused by chemotherapy such as cyclophosphamide could be improved by ganoderma lucidum because of its beneficial effects (Nonaka et al, 2005)
Multiple component herbal products that have been ethno medically used for a thousand and hundreds of years have been proved their potential in reducing the side effects of chemotherapeutic agents, as summarized by our study
Summary
Cancer remains to be the leading cause of human death all over the world. Observing the remarkable progress of development of new treatment against human cancer, the survival rate and quality of life (QOL) of cancer patients have been largely improved over the last decades (Courneya and Friedenreich, 1999). Recent-year evidence from studies on cell line, animal and clinical trials have revealed that a large number of natural products were potentially active in ameliorating chemotherapy-induced side effects. Non-specific cytotoxic effects of chemotherapeutic agents are usually observed in different tissues and organs of human body where some particular cell types physiologically divide rapidly. These toxic reactions include nephrotoxicity, neurotoxicity, cardiotoxicity, hematological toxicities, gastrointestinal toxicity and hepatotoxicity (Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (EBCTCG), 2005). Natural products, including pure compounds, herb extracts and composite formula, have been reported to effectively reduce the side effects induced by chemotherapy (Chen et al, 2010) and maintain the QOL of cancer patients. From the results, compared with oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy alone, the combination with Goshajinkigan, Keishikajutsubutou, HuangQi Injection (SMI), Shenfu Injection (SFI), Buyang Huanwu Decoction (BHD), and Huangqi Guizhi Wuwu Decoction (HGWD) could decrease the overall and severe CIPN incidence in cancer patients (Table 1)
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