Modified Liujunzi Decoction (六君子汤) Alleviates Chemotherapy-Induced Anorexia in Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Propensity Score Matched Case-Control Study

Objective To evaluate the effect of Chinese herbal medicine formula, modified Liujunzi Decoction (六君子汤, MLJZT), for anorexia, utilized as adjunct therapy during chemotherapy treatment for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods The study adopted a propensity score-matched design based on a prospective database. From February 2016 to September 2017, patients with advanced NSCLC that received both cisplatin-based chemotherapy and MLJZT (IM group) were 1:1 propensity score-matched to patients that received the cisplatin-based chemotherapy alone (control group). Changes in anorexia and weight, as well as side effects were evaluated per week within 4-cycle chemotherapy. Results Overall, 156 patients with advanced NSCLC that had received chemotherapy from our database were identified and 53 pairs were matched successfully. In total, 48.6% (50/53) of patients in the IM group had anorexia-improvement compared to 28.3% (15/53) of patients in the control group, and a total of 39.6% (21/53) of patients in the control group had a worsening of anorexia compared to only 7.8% (8/53) of patients in the IM group ( P <0.01). The weight reduced significantly over time in the control group (−2.36 ± 2.53 kg) as compared to the IM group (−0.62 ± 3.89 kg, P <0.01). CHM didn’t reduce the efficacy of chemotherapy in shrinking tumor size, and didn’t increase the incidence of side effects such as hematological and hepatorenal toxicity. Conclusion MLJZT is effective and safe for alleviating anorexia in patients with NSCLC. These findings warrant the conduct of a randomized controlled trial.