Observation Of Chinese Medicine On Life Quality Of Post-surgery And Post Chemotherapy Colorectal Cancer Patients Through Spleen-strengthening Treatment By Chinese Herbs

Objective:To observe the efficacy of Chinese medicine on life quality of post-surgery and post chemotherapy colorectal cancer patients through spleen-strengthening treatment by Chinese herbs.MethodTo randomly assign half of the 60 post-surgery and/or post-chemotherapy colorectal cancer patients of pathologic stage I, II or III who were hospitalized in or came to the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Dongguan during May,2015 and February,2016 into the treatment group and the other half, the control group.Spleen-strengthening Chinese medicine was given to the treatment group (basic prescription:codonopsis 15g, rhizoma atractylodis 15g, poria 15g, yam 12g, lotus nut 12g, coix seed 20g, fructus amomi lOg (put in later), platycodon root 10g, white hyacinth bean 15g, licorice 5g; adjustment was made according to the severity of the symptoms of the patients) one dose per day.250ml Chinese medicine was made out of 450ml of water and the basic prescription, and it should be taken half in the morning and half in the evening while it was warm. After two months of Chinese herbal medicine treatment, patients stopped taking it for one month, and then started taking it for two consecutive months again. The whole process of the Chinese herbal medicine treatment lasted five months, which was the intervention time for both groups. As for the control group, patients were checked regularly and their conditions were recorded in details. In the third and the fifth month, patients took blood routine test and tumor marker (CEA, CA199, etc.) was checked. In addition, B-ultrasound, CT or MR was carried out to review patients’conditions. Weight measurement, evaluation on the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine and life quality of the patients, HGB, tumor marker (CEA, CA199) determination and image examinations were carried out and recorded in both groups before and after related treatments. Data collected in these five months of treatment were statistically analyzed.Results(1) Evaluation on treatment efficacy:the treatment group:the treatment was proved very effective in 8 patients, effective in 18 and non-effective in 4, with an effective rate of 86.7%; the control group:the treatment was proved very effective in 2 patients, effective in 12 and non-effective in 16, with an effective rate of 46.7%. The rank-sum test showed a significant difference between the treatment group and the control group (P=0.002<0.05), which meant that the result is statistically significant. Spleen-strengthening Chinese medicine can effectively improve clinical symptoms of post-surgery and/or post-chemotherapy colorectal cancer patients.(2) Body weight changes:after the treatment, weight of the patients in the treatment group increased from 47.83±4.48Kg to 51.65±4.45Kg, which was proved statistically singnigicant (P=0.000<0.05); while in the control group, weight of the patients increase from 47.90±4.01Kg to 48.40±3.86Kg, which was also proved statistically significant (P=0.001<0.05). Results of the two groups showed statistical significance, which meant that spleen-strengthening Chinese medicine is very helpful with increasing body weight of post-surgery and/or post-chemotherapy colorectal cancer patients.(3) Life quality:according to the FACT-C table, physiological conditions, social and family status, emotional wellbeing, functions, and other conditions as well as overall status of the patients in the treatment group were substantially improved after the treatment. The value of P was lower than 0.05, which meant that the difference was statistically significant. Physiological conditions and overall status of the patients in the control group were substantially improved and the value of P was lower than 0.05 as well, which meant that the difference was statistically significant. Nevertheless, social and family status, emotional wellbeing, functions and other conditions were improved but with the value of P higher than 0.05, which meant that the difference was not statistically significant. Patients in the treatment group improved much more than those of the control group with the value of P lower than 0.05, which meant that the difference was statistically significant. Spleen-strengthening Chinese medicine can substantially improved life quality of post-surgery and/or post-chemotherapy colorectal cancer patients.(4) HGB:HGB of the patients in the treatment group increased substantially from 90.53±8.38 g/L to 103.07±9.84 g/L, which was proved statistically significant (P=0.000<0.05); while HGB of those in the control group increase from 91.10±9.14 g/L to 93.67±17.65 g/L, which was proved statistically insignificant (P=0.407>0.05). Results of the two groups proved that the Chinese medicine can enhance HGB recovery and improve the conditions of post-surgery and/or post-chemotherapy colorectal cancer patients.(5) Metastasis and recurrence rate:in the treatment group, one case of metastasis and recurrence was found with a rate of 3.3% while in the control group, two were found with a rate of 6.7%. Chi-square test showed that the results were not of statistical significance (chi-square=0.351,P=1.000). Spleen- strengthening Chinese medicine was not very effective in reducing metastasis and recurrence rate.(6) Tumor marker:before the treatment, difference between the two groups in CEA (treatment group:P=0.842>0.05; control group:P=0.910>0.05) and CA199 (treatment group:P=0.289>0.05;control group:P=0.731>0.05) was not statistically significant, which showed that spleen-strengthening Chinese medicine does not have much effect on the improvement of tumor markers.(7) Safety indicator:no adverse reaction was reported during the period when patients in the treatment group took the Chinese herbal medicine.ConclusionSpleen-strengthening Chinese herbal medicine can substantially improve the conditions and life quality of post-surgery and/or post chemotherapy colorectal cancer patients.