ArticleEvidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM2020
Aidi Injection, Compound Kushen Injection, or Kanglaite Injection: Which Is the Best Partner with Systemic Chemotherapy for Patients with HCC? A Network Meta-Analysis.
Article in Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Immune regulation and clinical response of Chinese herbal injections combined with TACE in hepatocellular carcinoma: a cumulative logit regression and Bayesian network meta-analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Aidi injection reduces doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity by inhibiting carbonyl reductase 1 expression.Pharmaceutical biology · 2022Article
- Kanglaite Combined With Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Therapy for Stage III/IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A PRISMA-Compliant Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveThe aim of this network meta-analysis (NMA) was to explore the effectiveness of different traditional Chinese medicine injections (TCMIs) combined with systemic chemotherapy for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
methodsA comprehensive search for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was performed with regard to different TCMIs for treating HCC in seven electronic databases up to November 2019. The quality assessment of the included RCTs was conducted according to the Cochrane risk of bias tool. The objective response rate (ORR), clinical benefit rate (CBR), and Karnofsky performance score (KPS) data were extracted. The network meta-analysis used the network package in Stata software to analyse the data and draw a map of the evidence summarizing the direct and indirect comparisons.
resultsA total of 1697 articles were retrieved through the comprehensive search. Twenty RCTs focusing on Aidi injection, compound Kushen injection, and Kanglaite injection as adjuvant therapies to chemotherapy were included, involving a total of 1418 patients. The NMA statistics showed that all three indicators (ORR, CBR, and KPS) were better in the combined treatment group of TCMIs with chemotherapy than that in the single treatment group of chemotherapy alone. Kanglaite injection tended to be better than the other two in terms of primary outcome, but there was not a significant difference. The combined treatment group had fewer adverse reactions than the single treatment group. Moreover, several articles reported that TCMIs combined with chemotherapy could increase the number of CD3+ and CD4+ T lymphocytes and the ratio of CD4+/CD8+ T lymphocytes.
conclusionsTCMIs combined with systemic chemotherapy could be an effective and safe treatment option for patients with HCC. Kanglaite injection showed a tendency to be better than the other two kinds of injections in terms of ORR. Nevertheless, additional results from multicentre trials and high-quality studies will be pivotal for supporting our findings.
Identifiers
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Registered trials
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