title: [Clinical observation on nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated with combined therapy of radiotherapy and ginseng polysaccharide injection].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To observe the effect of radiotherapy (RT) combined with Ginseng polysaccharide (GSP) injection in treating nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and its influence on immune function.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred and thirty-one NPC patients were randomly divided into two groups, 64 cases in the RT-GSP group treated with RT-GSP and 67 in the control group treated with conventional therapy, to observe the local cancer remission rate, 1-year total survival rate, no tumor survival rate and no remote metastasis survival rate. Moreover, the changes of T-lymphocyte subsets, natural killer (NK) cell activity and lymphocyte activated killer (LAK) cell activity before and after treatment were observed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Clinical examination conducted 3 months after treatment showed that the complete remission rete in the RT-GSP group was 96.6%, and in the control group 93.3%, the complete remission rate of cervical node metastatic tumor in the two groups was 85.7% and 78.0% respectively, and the NPC CT remission rate 60.3% and 51.7% respectively. Re-examination carried out 1 year after RT treatment showed that the total survival rate in the two groups was 100% and 96.5%, no tumor survival rate 84.4% and 74.6%, and no remote metastasis survival rate was 93.8% and 88.1% respectively. The activity of NK cell and LAK cell as well as T3, T4 value in peripheral blood increased significantly in the RT-GSP group (all P < 0.05) after treatment, while in the control group, activity of NK cell and LAK cell changed insignificantly after treatment, and T3, T4 value lowered significantly (P < 0.05). No toxic-adverse reaction of GSP was found.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  GSP has certain improving immune function effect in NPC patients during RT, it could also eliminate the occurred adverse reaction to RT and the general condition of patients.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Center of Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Sciences, 510060.
authors.forename: F Y
authors.initials: FY
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Z F
authors.initials: ZF
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: H Y
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D005894:Panax / Q000737:chemistry*; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D011134:Polysaccharides