Modified Liujunzi Decoction (六君子汤, MLJZT) alleviates chemotherapy-induced anorexia in advanced non-small cell lung cancer : a propensity score matched case-control study

Objective: To evaluate the effect of Chinese herbal medicine formula, modified Liujunzi Decoction (六君子汤, MLJZT), for anorexia, utilized as adjunct therapy during chemotherapy treatment for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: The study adopted a propensity score-matched design based on a prospective database. From February 2016 to September 2017, patients with advanced NSCLC that received both cisplatin-based chemotherapy and MLJZT (IM group) were 1:1 propensity score-matched to patients that received the cisplatin-based chemotherapy alone (control group). Changes in anorexia and weight, as well as side effects were evaluated per week within 4-cycle chemotherapy. Results: Overall, 156 patients with advanced NSCLC that had received chemotherapy from our database were identified and 53 pairs were matched successfully. In total, 48.6% (50/53) of patients in the IM group had anorexia-improvement compared to 28.3% (15/53) of patients in the control group, and a total of 39.6% (21/53) of patients in the control group had a worsening of anorexia compared to only 7.8% (8/53) of patients in the IM group (P<0.01). The weight reduced significantly over time in the control group (−2.36 ± 2.53 kg) as compared to the IM group (−0.62 ± 3.89 kg, P<0.01). CHM didn’t reduce the efficacy of chemotherapy in shrinking tumor size, and didn’t increase the incidence of side effects such as hematological and hepatorenal toxicity. Conclusion: MLJZT is effective and safe for alleviating anorexia in patients with NSCLC. These findings warrant the conduct of a randomized controlled trial.