[A Retrospective Study of Chinese Herbal Medicine Combined with Systemic Chemotherapy and/or Regional Arterial Perfusion for Pancreatic Cancer with Liver Metastases].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal medicine combined with systemic chemotherapy and/or regional arterial perfusion for pancreatic cancer with liver metastases (PCLM). METHODS: We retrospectively selected 292 patients with PCLM who were treated by Chinese herbal medicine combined with systemic chemotherapy and/or regional arterial perfusion at Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital from January 2001 to December 2010. All patients were assigned to the Western medicine treatment group (157 cases) and the integrative medicine treatment group (135 cases). Patients in the Western medicine treatment group were treated with gemcitabine (GEM)-based chemotherapy, and partial of them received regional arterial perfusion. Those in the integrative medicine treatment group additionally took Chinese herbs of clearing heat and eliminating mass for at least 4 weeks. The median survival time (MST) , adverse reactions and the incidence of complications were observed. RESULTS: There was no statistical significance in general data between the two groups (P > 0.05). There was statistical difference in MST between the two groups (4.8 months vs 5.5 months, P < 0.05). No death occurred during chemotherapy or regional arterial perfusion. All toxic or adverse reactions were tolerable. CONCLUSION: Chinese herbal medicine combined with systemic chemotherapy and/or regional arterial perfusion was effective and safe, and it could be optimally selected as palliative therapy for PCLM.

Effects of Qingyi Huaji decoction on serum levels of interleukin-6, interleukin-8 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha in nude mice bearing pancreatic tumors.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of Qingyi Huaji (QYHJ) decoction, a compound traditional Chinese herbal medicine, on tumor inhibition rate and serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) in nude mice with transplanted tumors of human pancreatic cancer. METHODS: The tumor-bearing mice model was established by subcutaneously inoculating with xenografts of pancreatic cancer into the right armpit of 40 BALB/c nude mice. After successful modeling, the mice were randomly divided into untreated group (Arabic gum), capecitabine group, low-dose QYHJ decoction group (36 g/kg) and high-dose QYHJ decoction group (72 g/kg), with 10 mice in each group. Citrate buffer solution (containing 5% Arabic gum), capecitabine suspension and QYHJ decoction were administered to four groups by gavage respectively. After 5-week treatment, the concentrations of serum IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-alpha were examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using blood sample from eye socket. Then the mice were euthanized by cervical dislocation. Tumor weight and the tumor inhibition rate were calculated. RESULTS: Tumor weight in the low-dose QYHJ decoction group decreased significantly as compared with the untreated group (P<0.05). Serum levels of IL-6 and TNF-alpha in low- and high-dose QYHJ groups were extremely significantly lower than those in the untreated group (P<0.01). Serum level of IL-8 in the low-dose QYHJ group was significantly lower than that in the untreated group (P<0.05). Correlation analysis showed that transplanted tumor weight of the mice was linearly positively correlated with serum levels of IL-6, IL-8 or TNF-alpha (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: Conventional dose of QYHJ decoction is effective in suppressing pancreatic carcinoma in nude mice. The mechanism may be related to down-regulation of serum cytokines such as IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-alpha.

Promoted cancer growth by stimulating cell proliferation and decreasing apoptosis using a lentivirus-based EphB2 RNAi in pancreatic carcinoma CFPAC-1 cells.

Several studies have reported the change of EphB2 in a variety of carcinomas and suggested a functional relation between EphB2 and tumor progression. However, its role in human pancreatic carcinoma has not been described. The aim of this study was to evaluate the significance of EphB2 in human pancreatic carcinoma CFPAC-1 cells. A lentivirus-based RNA interference (RNAi) vector was designed, synthesized and transfected into CFPAC-1 cells to inhibit EphB2 expression. WST-8 based Colorimetric Assay Cell Counting kit 8 (CCK-8) in vitro and xenograft transplantation model in nude mice was used to evaluate cell proliferation and growth respectively. Cell-cycle and apoptosis were analyzed by flow cytometry (FCM). RT-PCR and Western blot were used to assess mRNA expression and protein levels. EphB2 expression was significantly suppressed both in mRNA and protein levels using the lentivirus-based EphB2 RNAi in CFPAC-1 cells (P<0.01, P<0.01). Silencing EphB2 stimulated cell growth in vitro (P<0.05) and proliferation in vivo (P<0.01) versus Control RNAi. EphB2 RNAi significantly increased S phase cells from 18.15 to 27.18% (P<0.05), and significantly decreased G1 phase cells from 72.93 to 57.61% compared with Control RNAi (P<0.05). In addition, decreased apoptosis was observed in CFPAC-1 EphB2 RNAi cells compared with Control RNAi cells (P<0.01). The apoptosis rate was 1.63% and 7.44%, respectively. Silencing EphB2 increased CyclinD1, cyclindependent kinase 6 (CDK6) and Bcl-2 expression in both mRNA and protein levels compared with Control RNAi. A lentivirus-based EphB2 RNAi efficiently inhibited EphB2 gene and its protein expression. Silencing EphB2 stimulated pancreatic carcinoma growth by increasing cell proliferation through G1/S phase breakthrough, which relied on a CyclinD1/CDK6 cell-cycle regulated signal. Similarly, EphB2 inhibition also reduced CFPAC-1 cells apoptosis by up-regulating Bcl-2 expression. Thus, at least in the context of pancreatic carcinoma CFPAC-1 cells, EphB2 plays a tumor suppressor role in cell proliferation and apoptosis.