Astragalus has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries. Dr. Johnston looks at analyses of randomized trials that added astragalus-based herbal medicine to chemotherapy in advanced lung cancer.
What if an ancient medicinal plant could make chemotherapy work better?
Astragalus has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries, but today I'm interested in what happened when researchers combined astragalus with chemotherapy. In 2006, researchers analyzed 34 randomized human trials with 2,815 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. They compared chemotherapy alone with chemotherapy plus astragalus-based Chinese herbal medicine. The combination was associated with a 34% higher tumor response rate. And in the trials reporting one-year mortality, the risk of death was about 33% lower.
Then researchers aimed higher. A later meta-analysis examined 65 trials involving 4,751 patients. Tumor response was about 35% higher. Studies reporting one, two, and three years survival all favored astragalus combinations. We're talking about dozens of human trials involving thousands of lung cancer patients with remarkably consistent signals.
I know what you're thinking. Why wasn't astragalus studied by itself? Well, there were many, including one with metastatic cancer, and investigators in that study found statistically significant benefits, but these are small studies.
As the National Cancer Institute acknowledged, investors in pharmaceutical companies are not interested in herbs and generic drugs no longer under patent protection or not anticipated to be profitable by the investor or the pharmaceutical company.
Here's the research. You decide.
Educational research summary, not medical advice. Talk with your oncologist and pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any treatment or supplement.