SynthesisPharmaceutical biology2021
Efficacy and safety of Chinese patent medicine (Kang-ai injection) as an adjuvant in the treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: a meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Pharmaceutical biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of Kang'ai injection combined with chemotherapy on immune function in advanced non-small cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Pooled it
- Intrapleural administration with traditional Chinese medicine injections (Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Pooled it
- Benefit-Risk Assessment of Chinese Medicine Injections for Primary Liver Cancer Based on Multi-criteria Decision Analysis.Chinese journal of integrative medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Tailoring traditional Chinese medicine in cancer therapy.Molecular cancer · 2025Review
- Research Hotspots of Traditional Chinese Medicine for Liver Cancer in the Future Directions: A Bibliometric Analysis.Journal of hepatocellular carcinoma · 2025Article
- Traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of cancers of hepatobiliary system: from clinical evidence to drug discovery.Molecular cancer · 2024Review
- [Nan fang yi ke da xue xue bao = Journal of Southern Medical University · 2024Article
- Uncovering the mechanism of Kang-ai injection for treating intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma based on network pharmacology, molecular docking, andFrontiers in pharmacology · 2023Article
- Recent therapeutics in hepatocellular carcinoma.American journal of cancer research · 2023Review
- Article
- New opportunities and challenges of natural products research: When target identification meets single-cell multiomics.Acta pharmaceutica Sinica. B · 2022Review
- Potential ofMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Immunomodulatory Effect of Traditional Chinese Medicine Combined with Systemic Therapy on Patients with Liver Cancer: A Systemic Review and Network Meta-analysis.Journal of Cancer · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
contextKang-ai injection (KAI) is an authorized herbal medicine used in cancer treatment. However, its clinical efficacy in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been investigated thoroughly.
objectiveTo systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of KAI in patients with HCC. MATERIALS AND
methodsThe Web of Science, PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, CBM, CNKI, VIP and Wanfang databases were systematically searched (date range: inception to December 2020) using the key terms 'Kang-ai injection' and 'hepatocellular carcinoma'. The current analysis included controlled clinical trials that compared the efficacy and safety of the combination of KAI and conventional treatment (CT) with CT alone for HCC. The current study estimated the pooled risk ratio (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI).
resultsData pertaining to 35 trials with 2501 HCC patients were analysed. The results revealed that the combination of KAI and CT was associated with significantly superior objective response rate (RR = 1.57, 95% CI = 1.43-1.73), disease control rate (RR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.10-1.26), and quality of life (RR = 2.40, 95% CI = 1.79-3.23), compared to CT alone. The administration of KAI significantly alleviated most of the adverse effects caused by CT, including nausea and vomiting, liver damage, peripheral neurotoxicity, fever, abdominal pain, alopecia, increased bilirubin levels, leukopoenia, and reduction in haemoglobin levels (
conclusionsThe current meta-analysis indicates that a combination of CT and KAI could be more effective in improving the clinical efficacy of the treatment of HCC, compared to CT alone.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.