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Efficacy of Huaier granule in patients with breast cancer

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Abstract

Background

Huaier extract has been demonstrated to exhibit potent anti-tumor effects in various types of cancer cells. However, the clinical benefit of Huaier granule in breast cancer has not been reported. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy of Huaier granule in breast cancer patients.

Methods

Our study included 284 breast cancer patients treated with or without Huaier granule between January 2005 and October 2016 at Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, China. Retrospective data obtained included demographics, clinicopathological characteristics, disease-free survival (DFS), serum concentrations of tumor markers, the Karnofsky performance scale (KPS), and incidences of emotional symptoms. DFS was the main outcome measure.

Results

Of the patients included, 144 were classified into the control group and 140 into the Huaier group. Baseline characteristics were well balanced between the study arms. Median DFS was 91.43 months for control group and 112.61 months for Huaier group (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.97, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.57–5.61, p < 0.01). After Huaier granule treatment, the serum levels of tumor markers could be reduced to the normal range. In addition, breast cancer patients with Huaier granule treatment had higher KPS scores and less emotional symptoms.

Conclusions

Our data demonstrated that patients orally administrated Huaier granule got longer DFS. Furthermore, Huaier granule could reduce serum tumor markers, improve the functional status, and decrease the incidences of emotional symptoms in breast cancer patients. Therefore, Huaier granule was an effective therapy for women with breast cancer.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the patients, their families, and their caregivers for participating in the trial. X.W., T.C., and Y.Z. designed and performed the study. X.W. and T.C. were involved in data collection and interpretation. X.W., T.C., and Y.Z. wrote the manuscript. X.W. analyzed the data and drew the figures. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, China (No. ZR2017BH050).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nursing, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China

    Y. Zhang

  2. Department of Breast Surgery, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China

    X. Wang

  3. School of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China

    T. Chen

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  1. Y. Zhang
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Correspondence to Y. Zhang.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Zhang, Y., Wang, X. & Chen, T. Efficacy of Huaier granule in patients with breast cancer. Clin Transl Oncol 21, 588–595 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-018-1959-4

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