Efficacy and safety of Huachansu combined with chemotherapy in advanced gastric cancer A meta-analysis》.pdf

Medical Hypotheses 81 (2013) 243–250 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Medical Hypotheses journal homepage: www.else /locate/mehy Efficacy and safety of Huachansu combined with chemotherapy in advanced gastric cancer: A meta-analysis Xuefeng Xie a,1, Xiaohui Huang a,1, Jun Li a, Xiongwen Lv a, Jihan Huang b, Songtao Tang c, Yehuan Sun d,⇑ a Department of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, Anhui, China b Department of Quantitative Pharamcology, Center for Drug Clinical Research, Shanghai University of Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China c Department of Endocrinology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, Anhui, China d Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, Anhui, China a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Background: Huachansu, a Chinese medicine that comes from dried toad venom from the skin glands of Received 6 March 2013 Bufo bufo gargarizans Cantor or Bufo melanostictus Schneider, has been used in treatment of cancers. We Accepted 23 April 2013 conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Huachansu combined with chemother- apy for advanced gastric cancer. Methods: The main efficacy measures were total response rates, quality of life and one-year survival rate. We also assessed the safety of treatments by evaluating the rate of occurrence of gastrointestinal