Adjuvant Effects of Fermented Red Ginseng Extract on Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Treated with Chemotherapy

Objective: To investigate the adjuvant therapeutic effects of fermented red ginseng(FRG) extract on non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC) patients treated with chemotherapy. Methods: A total of 60 patients with advanced NSCLC were assigned to two groups using a random number table, i.e., the gemcitabine plus cisplatin(GP) chemotherapy alone group(26 patients) and the FRG + GP chemotherapy group(34 patients), for 60-day treatment. Patients were then assessed according to the Fatigue Symptom Inventory, Chinese medicine symptoms score, Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, Self-Rating Depression Scale, Karnofsky Performance Status Scale, and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lung. In addition, chemotherapy toxicity and tumor biomarkers were measured. Results: For NSCLC patients after chemotherapy, FRG extract significantly improved the FSI score, CM symptoms score, psychological status, physical conditions, and quality of life and reduced chemotherapy toxicity(P<0.01), but the expression levels of carcinoembryonic antigen, cytokeratin-19 fragments, and neuron-specific enolase were not significantly different between the chemotherapy alone and the FRG + chemotherapy groups or between pre-and post-treatments(P>0.05). Conclusions: This study demonstrated that FRG extract had an adjuvant effect on advanced NSCLC patients treated with chemotherapy. Further studies with a larger sample size will verify the current findings.