Influence of interventional chemotherapy combined with traditional Chinese medicine on the immune function of elderly patients with advanced lung cancer

Objective: To investigate the influence of interventional chemotherapy combined with traditional Chinese medicine on the immune function in elderly patients with advanced lung cancer and to establish a comprehensive therapeutic pattern which is effective and economical with lower side-effects. Methods: A total of 60 aged patients with lung cancer were randomly and equally divided into two groups with 30 patients in each group. Patients in group A were purely treated with traditional Chinese medicine and patients in group B were treated with a combination of interventional chemotherapy and traditional Chinese medicine. And two therapeutic courses (6-8 weeks) were conducted in both groups. The serum T-lymphocyte subsets levels of CD3, CD4, CD8, CD4/CD8, NK cells and CD4{sup +}CD25{sup +} Treg cell levels were estimated with flow cytometry. The results were statistically analyzed. Results: No significant difference in serum levels of T cell subsets and CD4{sup +}CD25{sup +} Treg cell levels existed between the two groups, both before and after the treatment (P > 0.05). However, after the treatment the CD4{sup +}CD25{sup +} Treg cell level in group B was significantly lower than that in group A (P < 0.05). The short-term effective rate and the total clinical benefit rate in group B were 40% and 73.3% respectively, which were much better than those in group A (20% and 63.3% respectively). Conclusion: Interventional chemotherapy combined with traditional Chinese medicine will not damage the immune function of elderly patients with advanced lung cancer, on the contrary, the combination therapy, through effectively reducing the suppressor T cell level,shows excellent short-term effect. It indicates that interventional chemotherapy combined with Chinese medicine is an effective comprehensive therapeutic mode for elderly patients with advanced lung cancer. (authors)