Traditional Chinese medicine, other nonpharmacological
interventions benefit cancer patients
A meta-analysis of dozens of studies
of traditional Chinese medicine and other nonpharmacological interventions
meant to improve patients' quality of life affirms that these approaches, on
the whole, help alleviate depression, fatigue, pain, anxiety, insomnia and
gastrointestinal problems in Chinese cancer patients.
Specific interventions associated
with traditional Chinese medicine, such as acupuncture and therapeutic massage,
reduced gastrointestinal disruptions after surgery, and acupuncture also
lessened fatigue in cancer patients, the researchers report in the journal Oncotarget.
"The meta-analysis confirmed
that traditional Chinese medicine enhanced global quality of life for Chinese
cancer patients," said University of Illinois animal sciences and
pathology professor emeritus Keith Kelley, an author of the study. Dr. Qiang
(Quentin) Liu, a former student of Kelley's and a U. of I. medical scholar who
now is at Dalian Medical University in China, led the study with his colleagues
Weiwei Tao and Xi Luo.
"We think this is the most
comprehensive study of traditional Chinese medicine psychobehavioral
interventions and the quality of life of cancer patients published to
date," Dr. Liu said. "Our findings will promote more investigations
into how the body and mind are connected during disease development, and will
facilitate better cancer treatments."
Other interventions not associated
with traditional Chinese medicine, including stress management, cognitive
behavioral therapy and physical training, also were found to improve quality of
life in Chinese cancer patients, the researchers report.
The team started with 6,500 studies
published in journals in China and 23,000 studies from Western journals. All of
the research focused on nonpharmacological interventions involving adult
Chinese cancer patients in China. After eliminating duplicate studies, those
with nonstandard measures and those that failed to include control subjects or
large enough sample sizes, the team ended up with a total of 67 studies, with
16 of them focused on traditional Chinese medicine.
The latter 16 studies did not
include enough studies of tai chi and qigong to allow the researchers to come
to meaningful conclusions about the specific effects of those interventions,
Kelley said. The total number of cancer patients included in the analysis was
6,806.
"We were surprised by the
limited number of papers on the use of traditional Chinese medicine
psychobehavioral interventions for Chinese cancer patients that qualified for
entry into this meta-analysis, particularly since the TCMs originated and are
mostly practiced in China," the researchers wrote.
"Traditional Chinese medicine
has been practiced for 2,500 years in China," Kelley said. "But what
is the scientific evidence that it improves quality of life in cancer patients?
This paper establishes that it does. Unfortunately, we were not able to
determine what specific components of traditional Chinese medicine are the most
effective."
Kelley said he hopes the evidence
that traditional Chinese medicine and other nonpharmacological interventions
benefit cancer patients will prompt new interest in research aimed at
understanding the physiological mechanisms at play.
Source: University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
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