The Clinical Research On Chemotherapy Induced Myelosuppression And Quality Of Life After Treatment By Medicated Moxa Stick

Objective:To compare the effect of using medicated moxa stick and chemotherapy with chemotherapy alone on bone marrow suppression and quality of life in cancer patients, to observe the changes on bone marrow suppression and quality of life after medicated moxa stick moxibustion in patients undergoing chemotherapy, to explore whether the medicated moxa stick moxibustion can alleviate chemotherapy induced bone marrow suppression and improve quality of life, to explore if medicated moxa stick moxibustion provide base for clinical application in chemotherapy patients.Materials and methods:The patients were collected from oncology department of Jiangsu Province Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Jiangsu Province of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine hospital. A total of 60 cancer patients who met the inclusion criteria were randomly divided into treatment group (30 cases) and control group (30 cases). After excluding the suspended cases, the treatment group had 26 patients and the control group had 27 patients. Patients from both group were treated with conventional western medicine treatment i.e. chemotherapy. In addition to the conventional chemotherapy treatment, the treatment group also received medicated moxa stick moxibustion in Shenque, Guanyuan and Zusanli. The moxibustion was done for 15 mins every time in each acupoint,6 times a week from the starting of chemotherapy until the beginning of next chemotherapy i.e. one cycle of chemotherapy (about 3 weeks) and in total for 3 cycles of chemotherapy. The blood test results, quality of life scores and adverse reactions before chemotherapy and after each cycle of chemotherapy of the two groups were recorded. And the data obtained was assessed by using SPSS 17.0.Result:1.Myelosuppression:1) WBC and Neutrophil:The overall changes in WBC count of treatment group after 3 cycles of chemotherapy as compared to control group was statistically significant(P<0.05). After the 1st cycle of chemotherapy, the white blood cell decreased but after the 2nd cycle of chemotherapy, the P-value increased slightly. The neutrophil count of treatment group was statistically significant as compared to control group after 1st and 2nd cycle of chemotherapy. However, the P-value after the third cycle of chemotherapy was higher than 0.05 and therefore statistically insignificant.2) HB:The change in Hb count of treatment group was markedly significant [P-value< 0.05] throughout the whole chemotherapy. However, the Hb count decreased after first cycle of chemotherapy as compared to before treatment and the P-value after 2nd cycle of chemotherapy increased in comparison to the P-value after 1st cycle of chemotherapy.3) PLT:The platelet count of treatment group changed significantly as compared to the control group (P-value<0.05). However, the P-value after 2nd cycle of chemotherapy was higher in comparison to P-value after 1st cycle of chemotherapy and P-value after 3rd cycle of chemotherapy was higher than that of 2nd cycle of chemotherapy.4) RBC:The RBC count of treatment group was statistically significant as compared to control group after 1st cycle of chemotherapy (P<0.05). However, the RBC count of treatment group after 2nd and 3rd chemotherapy was statistically insignificant in comparision to control group (P-value>0.05).1. Other side effects:The side effects like fatigue, etc. in treatment group are comparatively lesser than in the control group, and are statistically significant (P-value< 0.05). There is no significant difference in other side effects like dizziness, dry mouth, etc. in treatment group and control group (P-value> 0.05).2. Functional status:The treatment group showed significantly higher ZPS scores as compared to before treatment (P-value) and that of the control group was notably lower after chemotherapy as compared to before treatment. The whole body functional status of the treatment group is markedly better than that of control group, and statistically significant (P-value<0.05).Conclusion:1. The medicated moxa stick can help to decrease the decline rate and intensity of white blood cell count, platelet count, haemoglobin and neutrophil, reducing the chemotherapy induced bone marrow suppression and protecting blood cells.2. This study shows that medicated moxa stick doesn’t have any obvious effect on RBC.3. The medicated moxa stick can improve the systemic functional status of the patients and enhance the patient’s quality of life.4. The medicated moxa stick is safe and effective method of treatment (study shows no adverse effects).