Abstract:
OBJECTIVE To systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of insect proprietary Chinese medicine in the adjuvant treatment of tumor, and provide evidence-based evidence for clinical application.
METHODS Searches were conducted in CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, SinoMed, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science for randomized controlled trials(RCTs) on insect-based Chinese patent medicines treating malignant tumors from database inception to July 20, 2024. The ROB 2.0 tool was used for bias risk assessment of included studies, RevMan 5.3 for meta-analysis, Stata 15 for sensitivity analysis and publication bias detection, and GRADEprofiler 3.6 for grading the quality of evidence of outcome indicators.
RESULTS A total of 62 RCTs involving 8 823 patients(4 604 in the experimental group and 4 219 in the control group) and 11 types of insect-based anti-tumor Chinese patent medicines were included. Meta-analysis results showed that, compared with conventional anti-tumor treatment, the combination of insect-based Chinese patent medicines significantly improved the objective response rate(RR=1.34, 95%CI1.28, 1.39), disease control rate(RR=1.16, 95%CI1.13, 1.18), 1-year survival rate(RR=1.33, 95%CI1.23, 1.44), 2-year survival rate(RR=1.72, 95%CI1.35, 2.18), extended overall survival(MD=2.11, 95%CI0.85, 3.36), progression-free survival(MD=2.31, 95%CI1.07, 3.56), improved quality of life(RR=1.19, 95%CI1.13, 1.25), CD4+/CD8+ ratio(MD=0.24, 95%CI0.14, 0.35), and NK cell levels(MD=2.85, 95%CI2.39, 3.31), and reduced adverse event ratesgastrointestinal adverse reactions(RR=0.72, 95%CI0.66, 0.77), leukopenia(RR=0.72, 95%CI0.63, 0.82), hemoglobin decrease(RR=0.82, 95%CI0.73, 0.91), thrombocytopenia(RR=0.66, 95%CI0.59, 0.73), neutropenia(RR=0.65, 95%CI0.54, 0.79), abnormal liver function(RR=0.67, 95%CI0.58, 0.77), abnormal kidney function(RR=0.62, 95%CI0.49, 0.79), all of which were statistically significant. However, there was no statistically significant difference in extending median survival time(MD=3.26, 95%CI−3.04, 9.56). Sensitivity analysis and publication bias detection indicated that the results were robust. GRADE evidence evaluation suggested that the evidence levels of the above outcome measures ranged from very low to high, with the 1-year survival rate, incidence of gastrointestinal adverse reactions, incidence of thrombocytopenia, and incidence of abnormal liver function being of high quality evidence.
CONCLUSION The combination of insect-based Chinese patent medicines provides better control over tumors, improves short-term efficacy and survival rates, prolongs disease-free survival, and enhances quality of life, all without increasing the risk of adverse reactions. It is considered safe and recommended for clinical application.