Effect of Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha) on the development of chemotherapy-induced fatigue and quality of life in breast cancer patients
Biswal BM, Sulaiman SA, Ismail HC, Zakaria H, Musa KI
Integrative cancer therapies · 72 citations
Review labels
Neutral facts our review recorded about how this study was done. They describe method, never whether we like the result.
How it was studied
- Design
- Controlled clinical trial (indexed by PubMed)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Health markers and function
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Funding not disclosed
Publication
- Published
- 2012-11-09 · Integr Cancer Ther · vol. 12 · issue 4 · pp. 312–322
- Publisher
- SAGE Publishing
- Cited
- 130 citations · more than 99% of similar papers · 16.0× the field average
- Impact
- Top 10% most cited in its field
- References
- 33 works
- Access
- Open access (journal)
- Research areas
- Phytochemicals and Medicinal Plants · Complementary and Alternative Medicine Studies
- Keywords
- Withania somnifera, Medicine, Chemotherapy, Cyclophosphamide, Internal medicine, Breast cancer, Epirubicin, Cancer, Quality of life (healthcare), Surgery, Oncology, Pathology, Nursing
- MeSH
- humans, withania, breast neoplasms, fatigue, plant extracts, antineoplastic combined chemotherapy protocols, treatment outcome, phytotherapy, quality of life, adult, aged, middle aged, female, medication adherence
5 authors
From MY
- Biswa Mohan BiswalHospital Universiti Sains Malaysia
- Siti Amrah SulaimanHospital Universiti Sains Malaysia
- Hasanah Che IsmailUniversiti Sains Malaysia; Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia
- H. ZakariaUniversiti Sains Malaysia; Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia
- Kamarul Imran MusaUniversiti Sains Malaysia; Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
Unlabelled
Hypothesis. Withania somnifera is an herb with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antistress, and adaptogenic properties. Previous studies have shown its antistress effects in animals. Traditional Indian medicine has used it for centuries to alleviate fatigue and improve general well-being.
Methods
This is an open-label prospective nonrandomized comparative trial on 100 patients with breast cancer in all stages undergoing either a combination of chemotherapy with oral Withania somnifera or chemotherapy alone. The chemotherapy regimens were either taxotere, adriamycin, and cyclophosphamide or 5-fluorouracil, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide. Withania somnifera root extract was administered to patients in the study group at a dose of 2 g every 8 hours, throughout the course of chemotherapy. The quality-of-life and fatigue scores were evaluated before, during, and on the last cycles of chemotherapy using the EORTC QLQ-C30 (Version 3), Piper Fatigue Scale (PFS), and Schwartz Cancer Fatigue Scale (SCFS-6).
Results
The median age distributions in the study and control arm were 51 years (range = 36-70) and 50.5 years (range = 32-71), respectively. The majority (77%) of patients had stage II and III disease. Patients in the control arm experienced statistically significant higher estimated marginal means of fatigue score compared with the study group (P < .001 PFS, P < .003 SCFS-6). Furthermore, various symptom scales of the EORTC QLQ-C30 were statistically significant in 7 out of 18 symptoms in the intervention group compared with the control group (P < .001). The 24-month overall survival for all stages in study and control group patients were 72% versus 56%, respectively; however, the result was not significant (P = .176), at a median follow-up duration of 26 months.
Conclusions
Withania somnifera has potential against cancer-related fatigue, in addition to improving the quality of life. However, further study with a larger sample size in a randomized trial is warranted to validate our findings.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher.
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