The role of herbal medicine in the side effects of chemotherapy

Abstract

Nowadays, significant progress has been made in the treatment of cancer. Chemotherapy is one of the most common treatments in cancer management. The use of chemotherapy drugs is generally associated with various serious and non-medical complications. Nausea and vomiting with Chemotherapy are among the most severe side effects and of major concern for patients with cancer. Due to the limited effect and dangerous side effects of taking antiemetic drugs, herbal medicine has been welcomed by patients as one of the most active and complementary Drugs in this field. The contradictory results in this area led the researcher to carry out the present study with the aim of systematically reviewing the effects of medicinal plants on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. In this structured review, all studies during the years 2008-2018 using keywords chemotherapy, chemotherapy side effects, medicinal herbs, nausea and vomiting and drug side effects from internal and external databases. The data were analyzed using meta-analysis method; the selected articles were collected according to inclusion criteria and finally were examined more closely. After searching the databases and extracting a large number of articles by title and abstract, 360 articles were reviewed and finally 18 articles were reviewed. The herbal remedies used to prevent and treat chemotherapy-induced nausea were ginger, chamomile, mint, cardamom, and onion, respectively. Early detection of side effects in patients can prevent forced discontinuation of treatment or reduce the dose of medications to control side effects that will reduce the effectiveness of treatment. Therefore, it is possible to improve the condition of patients and reduce the side effects of chemotherapy by providing appropriate educational facilities and programs on how to use these herbs. These interventions have also been studied in patients with a wide range of cancers, while each type of cancer has its own chemotherapy protocol and differs in severity from nausea to other protocols, As a result, it is not easy to judge the efficacy of different types of herbs on chemotherapy-induced nausea and to generalize the results to other cancers, so further research is recommended by the researcher.