Objective: To evaluate the intervention effect of Feiji Recipe (FJR) on tumor immune escape.
Methods: In the prospective randomized control study, 60 cases of middle stage and advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with qi-yin deficiency syndrome were randomly assigned to the treatment group and the control group, 30 in each group. The levels of CD+ CD25+ Tr, interleukin-10 (IL-10), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), sCD44v6 and transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) of peripheral blood were observed before and after treatment, and the clinical efficacy of FJR was evaluated depending upon the changes in tumor size, Karnofsky Performance scoring (KPS) and TCM syndrome.
Results: (1) The levels of CD4+ CD2+Tr, VEGF, sCD44v6, TGF-beta1, and IL-10 decreased, in the treatment group as compared with those in the control group, respectively. (2) The stabilization rate of tumor in the treatment group was superior to that in the control group (78.26% vs 50.00%, P < 0.05). (3) The stabilization rate of KPS increasing in the treatment group and the control group was 76.67% and 43.33% respectively, suggesting the improvement of KPS in the treatment group was superior to that in the control group (P < 0.01). (4) Improvement in TCM qi-yin deficiency syndrome was more significant in the treatment group than that in the control group.
Conclusion: FJR can stabilize the tumor body, improve the clinical symptoms of middle stage and advanced NSCLC with qi-yin deficiency syndrome, promote patients' quality of life, and is effective in recovering immuno-surveillance and intervening immune escape of lung cancer through multi-pathway to enhance the clinical therapeutic efficacy.