The role of herbal medicine in the side effects of chemotherapy

Resumen

Nowadays, significant progress has beenmade in the treatment of cancer. Chemotherapyis one of the most common treatmentsin cancer management. The use of chemotherapydrugs is generally associated with various serious andnon-medical complications. Nausea and vomiting withChemotherapy are among the most severe side effectsand of major concern for patients with cancer. Due to thelimited effect and dangerous side effects of taking antiemeticdrugs, herbal medicine has been welcomed by patientsas one of the most active and complementary Drugsin this field. The contradictory results in this area led theresearcher to carry out the present study with the aim ofsystematically reviewing the effects of medicinal plants onchemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. In this structuredreview, all studies during the years 2008-2018 usingkeywords chemotherapy, chemotherapy side effects,medicinal herbs, nausea and vomiting and drug side effectsfrom internal and external databases. The data wereanalyzed using meta-analysis method; the selected articleswere collected according to inclusion criteria and finallywere examined more closely. After searching the databasesand extracting a large number of articles by title andabstract, 360 articles were reviewed and finally 18 articleswere reviewed. The herbal remedies used to prevent andtreat chemotherapy-induced nausea were ginger, chamomile,mint, cardamom, and onion, respectively. Early detectionof side effects in patients can prevent forced discontinuationof treatment or reduce the dose of medicationsto control side effects that will reduce the effectivenessof treatment. Therefore, it is possible to improve the conditionof patients and reduce the side effects of chemotherapyby providing appropriate educational facilities andprograms on how to use these herbs. These interventionshave also been studied in patients with a wide range ofcancers, while each type of cancer has its own chemotherapyprotocol and differs in severity from nausea to otherprotocols, As a result, it is not easy to judge the efficacy ofdifferent types of herbs on chemotherapy-induced nauseaand to generalize the results to other cancers, so furtherresearch is recommended by the researcher.