Effect of symptomatic treatment combined traditional Chinese medicine in treating bone marrow suppression after chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer

Objective To investigate the application effect of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in treating bone marrow suppression induced by chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer.

Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 53 pancreatic cancer patients who underwent chemotherapy induced bone marrow suppression at Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center between January and August 2024. All patients developed varying degrees of bone marrow suppression during the first to third cycles of conventional chemotherapy. In the fourth cycle of chemotherapy, TCM was added, and the improvement in bone marrow suppression after TCM treatment was observed.

Results After thefirst cycle of chemotherapy, all patients exhibited different degrees of bone marrow suppression, including leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, neutropenia, and anemia. Compared with combined TCM treatment before, among patients with bone marrow suppression of grade Ⅱ and above, the proportion of those with leukopenia decreased significantly after one month of TCM treatment (P=0.019), and the proportion of those with thrombocytopenia also decreased, but the difference was not statistically significant (P=0.066). There was no statistically significant difference in the proportion of patients with neutropenia before and after TCM treatment (P=0.231). One month after TCM treatment, the white blood cell count, hemoglobin level, and platelet count of the patientsincreased comparedto before combined treatment (P=0.006, P=0.011, P < 0.001). One month after TCM treatment, the average number of use of recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and recombinant human thrombopoietin were (2.8±1.9) times/cycle and (3.1±1.2) times/cycle, respectively, which were less than those before combined TCM treatment (4.5±1.7) times/cycle and (4.5±1.3) times/cycle (P=0.002, 0.038).

Conclusion Combined TCM treatment can improve adverse reactions of bone marrow suppression after chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer and increase white blood cell count and hemoglobin level.