Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world, with breast cancer being the most prevalent cancer. Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) is one of the most serious side effects of chemotherapy. Because the current CINV treatment option has several flaws, alternative treatment options are required. Ginger has traditionally been used to treat nausea and vomiting, and it also has anticancer properties in breast cancer cells. Based on these findings, researchers investigated whether using ginger to treat CINV in breast cancer patients is both effective and safe. We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, CNKI, and Wanfang from inception to June 2022. Outcomes included Rhodes Index Scores of Nausea, Vomiting, and Retching, severity and frequency of CINV. Five RCTs were included. We pooled all included data and performed subgroup analysis by types of CINV. Overall, authors found that ginger was associated with a reduction in CINV. Subgroup and sensitivity analysis revealed that managing severity of acute CINV in breast cancer patients with ginger was efficient. In terms of managing delayed CINV in breast cancer patients, ginger was also statistically significant. The authors concluded that ginger may be helpful in lowering both acute and delayed CINV in breast cancer patients. Since there were no serious side effects, ginger is thought to be safe.

This study evaluates acute and subchronic toxicity of a Korean herbal formula HAD-B1 in rat to investigate whether HAD-B1 has potential toxicity to humans. First, the study to assess the acute oral toxicity at dose levels of 0, 500, 1000, and 2000 mg/kg body weight (BW) was performed in male and female SD rats (Crl: CD, specific pathogen-free) (n = 5/group). Based on the result of the acute oral study, 4 weeks’ dose range finding study and 13 weeks’ subchronic study were performed (dose range finding study, DRF; n = 5/group) and 13 weeks (subchronic study; n = 10/group) in male and female SD rats. The control group was administered with distilled water (DW). Clinical signs, body weight, food consumption, ophthalmic examination, urinalysis, hematological/biochemical parameters, gross finding at necropsy, and histopathological examination were investigated and recorded. In the oral acute toxicity study of SD rats, no clinical signs, mortality, body weight changes, and gross findings were observed. Also, there were no treatment-related changes in the 4-week DRF study. Based on these results, a 13-week repeated-dose toxicity study (subchronic) in SD rats was performed. HAD-B1 showed temporal hypersalivation in clinical signs and an increased tendency in body weight at 2000 mg/kg BW. However, there were no treatment-related changes in mortality, food consumption, ophthalmology, urinalysis, hematology, biochemistry, gross finding at necropsy, organ weights, and histopathology in either sex of any group. Based on this toxicological evaluation of HAD-B1, we concluded that no target organ was determined, and the no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) of HAD-B1 was determined to be > 2000 mg/kg B W. Therefore, we decided that consuming HAD-B1 is relatively nontoxic.

Viscum album var. coloratum (Kom.) Ohwi is a traditional herbal medicine used in East Asia to treat hypertension, skeletal muscle disorders, and cancer. The inhibitory effects of Viscum album (VA) extract on chemokines and its therapeutic potential in erlotinib-induced skin rash were investigated in this study. ELISA was used to measure the levels of chemokines, MCP-1 and RANTES, which are thought to be mediators of erlotinib-induced skin rash in RAW264.7 cells. Western blot analysis was used to look into the activation of signaling pathways like AKT, MAPK, and EGF. In order to investigate the active compounds in VA extract, solvent fractionation and preparative HPLC were performed sequentially. VA extract significantly reduced the production of TNF-α, MCP-1, and RANTES but not IL-1. Furthermore, macrophage transmigration was inhibited without causing cell toxicity. VA extract had no effect on the phosphorylation of EGF receptors stimulated by EGF or suppressed by erlotinib in both A549, a non-small cell lung cancer cells, and Hacat, a human skin keratinocyte. The isolated viscumneoside III and viscumneoside V from VA extract significantly suppressed the expression of MCP-1, according to activity guided fractionation with organic solvent fractionation and preparative HPLC. These findings suggest that VA extract and its active compounds, viscumneoside III and viscumneoside V, regulate MCP-1 production and may have the potential to suppress erlotinib-induced skin toxicity by modulating macrophage activity without neutralizing anti-cancer efficacy.

This pilot study aimed to evaluate the agreement between traditional face-to-face Korean medicine (KM) pattern identification and non-face-to-face KM pattern identification using the data from related questionnaires, tongue image, and pulse features in patients with cancer. Methods: From January to June 2020, 16 participants with a cancer diagnosis were recruited at the one Korean medicine hospital. Three experienced Korean medicine doctors independently diagnosed the participants whether they belong to the cold pattern or not, heat pattern or not, deficiency pattern or not, and excess pattern or not. Another researcher collected KM pattern related data using questionnaires including Cold-Heat Pattern Identification (CHPI), tongue image analysis system, and pulse analyzer. Collected KM pattern related data without participants' identifier was provided for the three Korean medicine doctors in random order, and non-face-to-face KM pattern identification was carried out. The kappa value between face-to-face and non-face-to-face pattern identification was calculated. Results: From the face-to-face pattern identification, there were 13/3 cold/non-cold pattern, 4/12 heat/non-heat pattern, 14/2 deficiency/non-deficiency pattern, and 0/16 excess/non-excess pattern participants. In cold/non-cold pattern, kappa value was 0.455 (sensitivity: 0.85, specificity: 0.67, accuracy: 0.81). In heat/non-heat pattern, the kappa value was 0.429 (sensitivity: 0.75, specificity: 0.72, accuracy: 0.75). The kappa value of deficiency/non-deficiency and excess/non-excess pattern was not calculated because of the few participants of non-deficiency, and excess pattern. Conclusions: The agreement between traditional face-to-face pattern identification and non-face-to-face pattern identification seems to be moderate. The non-face-to-face pattern identification using questionnaires, tongue, and pulse features may feasible for the large clinical study.