2Department of Medical Oncology, Neolife Medical Center, Istanbul-Turkey
3Department of General Surgery, Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul-Turkey DOI : 10.5505/tjo.2021.2601 OBJECTIVE
Astragalus membranaceus root extract (AMe) has been shown to have immunomodulatory effects on macrophages and Th1 type immune responses. Our goal was to determine whether AMe improves the overall survival (OS) of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
METHODS
The medical charts of metastatic NSCLC were retrospectively reviewed. Histological subtype, performance
status, age, gender, smoking status, comorbidities, chemotherapeutics, and erlotinib that were
part of any type of treatment were recorded.
RESULTS
The median age of the patients was 61. The median follow-up period was longer for Group A (AMe users)
than Group C (control group) (18 vs. 11 months, p<0.001). At the time of analysis, 83.8% of the patients
had died. Univariate analysis showed that OS was significantly longer in Group A than Group C (21±4.2
vs. 11±0.9 months, p=0.004). In addition to AMe usage, female gender, smoking status, presence of hypertension,
and erlotinib usage also had significant impacts on OS (p<0.05 for all variables). The multivariate
analysis showed that only AMe (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.46, 95% CI: 0.27-0.76, p=0.003) and erlotinib (HR:
0.45, 95% CI: 0.22-0.89, p=0.02) usage were correlated with significantly longer OS.
CONCLUSION
Taking AMe during systemic anti-cancer treatment may significantly prolong OS of patients with metastatic
NSCLC.