[Protective efficacy and probable mechanism of ulinastatin in patients with gastrointestinal cancer undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether ulinastatin can alleviate the side effect in patients with gastrointestinal cancer undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy,and to explore the probable mechanism of its protective efficacy.


METHODS
Forty consecutive patients with gastrointestinal cancer who underwent surgical operations from May 2004 to October 2004 were recruited. The patients were randomly divided into therapeutic group and control group, receiving ulinastatin 150,000 U per day or 250 ml hydrochloric sodium before chemotherapy for 5 continuous days respectively. The prevalence of side effects and the levels IL-6 and TNF-alpha were compared between the two groups.


RESULTS
There were no differences in the clinicopathological characteristics between the two groups. The prevalences of white blood cell decline (41.2% versus 13.1%), pigmentation (23.5% versus 4.3%), baldness (17.6% versus 4.3%) were higher in the control group than those in therapeutic group (all P< 0.05). In therapeutic group, IL-6 level was significantly decreased after ulinastatin treatment, but not in the control group while the levels of TNF-alpha were not changed in the both groups.


CONCLUSIONS
Ulinastatin can reduce the common side effects of chemotherapy, and the mechanism may be associated with the decrease of IL-6.
He
Yu-long
YL
Department of Gastrointestinopancreatic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China. ylh@medmail.com.cn
Deng
Yan-hong
YH
Huang
Mei-jin
MJ
Zhao
Ji-zong
JZ
Cai
Shi-rong
SR
Zhang
Chang-hua
CH
Zhan
Wen-hua
WH
D000368:Aged; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005770:Gastrointestinal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011184:Postoperative Period; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000097:blood
D006023:Glycoproteins; D015850:Interleukin-6; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; C028665:urinastatin