Combination therapy of Jinlong capsule and three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy for primary hepatocellular carcinoma / 中国肿瘤临床

ABSTRACT

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effects and side effects of Jinlong Capsule with concurrent three-dimen-sional conformal radiotherapy for advanced primary hepatic carcinoma. Methods: A total of 85 patients with inoperable primary hepat-ic carcinoma were randomly divided into a research group and a control group. Forty-two cases in the control group were treated with three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy alone, whereas 45 cases in the research group were treated with three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy and Jinlong Capsule oral administration. All cases were irradiated with 6 MV X-rays, 2 Gy per day, 5 days a week to a to-tal dose of 60 Gy in 6 weeks. Jinlong Capsule (1 g) was administered orally three times daily until disease progression for at least one year. The short-term therapeutic effect and adverse events were evaluated for 2 months after treatment. The long-term therapeutic effect was assessed at the end of follow-up. Results: The objective response rate of the research group was significantly higher than that of the control group at 74.4% and 47.6%, respectively (P=0.011). The disease control rates were 97.7% and 85.3% (P=0.030) for the re-search and control groups, respectively. No obvious difference was found between the complete response rates of the two groups, 20.9% and 14.3% (P=0.422). The 1- and 3-year overall survival rates of the research group (74.4% and 34.9%) were significantly high-er than those of the control group (66.7% and 16.7%) at P=0.046. The 1- and 3-year progression free survival rates of the research group (74.4% and 27.9%) were significantly higher than those of the control group (61.9% and 9.5%) at P=0.038. The main adverse events were grade 1–2 bone marrow suppression, abdominal distension, nausea, vomiting, and transaminase elevation. No obvious dif-ference was observed between the adverse events in the two groups. Conclusion: The short- and long-term effects of the combination therapy of Jinlong Capsule and three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy on primary hepatocellular carcinoma were significantly high-er than those of three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy alone. The patients also tolerated the adverse effects.