Abstract
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been recognized to be conducive to enhancing the efficiency and reducing the side effects in the whole course of cancer treatment. The mechanisms of TCM/chemotherapy combination involved with interleukin-7 (IL-7) potentially enhance immune responses against tumor. In the present study, we emphasized on a herbal formulation Yi-qi-yang-yin-tian-sui-fang or TCM for short, and investigated its roles in chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The mice bared with tumor were treated with cisplatin (DDP) and simultaneously administrated with/without low, medium and high doses of TCMs (effective content: 0.5, 2.0 and 8.0 g/per mice) via oral gavage. The results indicated that combination of TCM further elevated the therapy efficiency of DDP in a dose-dependent manner. The growth of tumor cells was estimated by Ki-67 stain and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assay. The addition of TCM to the DDP treatment could significantly decrease the expression of Ki-67 and promote the apoptosis of tumor cells. In addition, the serum IL-7 level was down-regulated by DDP but restored by the treatment of TCM. The expression of IL-7 and its receptor IL-7R in tumor tissues was also recovered by TCM. Furthermore, the side effect from bone marrow suppression (myelosuppression) induced by DDP were assessed. TCM could abrogate DDP-induced apoptosis of bone marrow and also remarkably induced the expressions of IL-7 and hematopoietic growth factors including G-CSF, GM-CSF, SCF, and SDF-1 in bone marrow. These data indicated that this TCM combined with DDP showed superior anti-tumor effects with reduced myelosuppression via up-regulating IL-7.
Highlights
As a global health burden, lung cancer accounts for 19.4% of cancer-related deaths with 1.59 million deaths annually, and remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide
Lung cancers are pathologically classified into non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) and small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) [1,2]. the platinum-based doublet chemotherapy with or without targeted therapies have been evaluated in the treatment of NSCLC, the improvements of clinical outcomes have largely been confined to patients with adenocarcinoma due to the efficiency issues and/or side effects including cancer-related fatigue, pain, nausea, vomiting, nephrotoxicity, lymphopenia and myelosuppression [3,4,5]
We focused on the herbal formulation Yi-qi-yang-yin-tian-sui-fang, Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) for short, and investigated the roles of this TCM and IL-7 in chemotherapy of NSCLC
Summary
As a global health burden, lung cancer accounts for 19.4% of cancer-related deaths with 1.59 million deaths annually, and remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. New therapies for the management of advanced lung cancer are needed and should be suitable for improving quality of life and permitting long-term use. The addition of Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) as maintenance therapy into conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy is recommended for all kinds of patients, including patients with cancer [6]. The treatment of TCM could enhance the efficacy of conventional therapy and reduce the side effects and complications caused by chemo- and radiotherapy [7]. Our ongoing clinical study investigated a herbal formulation Yi-qi-yang-yin-tian-sui-fang, and found that this TCM could reduce nephrotoxicity, bone marrow suppression after chemotherapy and improve the body’s immune function (unpublished data)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call