title: Chinese Herbal Medicines as an Adjunctive Therapy for Unresectable Pancreatic Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
abstract: Pancreatic cancer is a common malignancy with a high mortality. Most patients present clinically with advanced pancreatic cancer. Moreover, the effect of radiotherapy or chemotherapy is limited. Complementary and alternative medicines represent exciting adjunctive therapies. In this study, we ascertained the beneficial and adverse effects of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) in combination with conventional therapy for inoperable pancreatic cancer by using meta-analysis methods for controlled clinical trials. We extracted data for studies searched from six electronic databases that were searched and also assessed the methodological quality of the included studies. We evaluated the following outcome measures: 6-month and 1-year survival rate, objective response rate, disease control rate, quality of life, and adverse effects. The final analysis showed CHM is a promising strategy as an adjunctive therapy to treat advanced or inoperable pancreatic cancer and that CHM in combination with conventional therapy is a promising strategy for resistant disease. However, convincing evidence must be obtained and confirmed by high-quality trials in future studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai 200233, China ; Department of Integrative Oncology, Benxi Central Hospital of China Medical University, Benxi, Liaoning 11700, China ; Postgraduate School, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai 200233, China ; Postgraduate School, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China.
authors.forename: Run
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gan
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai 200233, China.
authors.forename: Quanjun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai 200233, China.
authors.forename: Jinlu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai 200233, China.
authors.forename: Pengguo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai 200233, China.
authors.forename: Lili
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai 200233, China ; Postgraduate School, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China.
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Guo