Effect of Red Ginseng on Genotoxicity and Health-Related Quality of Life after Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Patients with Epithelial Ovarian Cancer: A Randomized, Double Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial

Abstract

We evaluated the effect of red ginseng on toxicity, health-related quality of life (HRQL) and survival after adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). A total of 30 patients with EOC were randomly assigned to placebo (n = 15) and red ginseng groups (n = 15). All patients took placebo or red ginseng (3000 mg/day) for three months. Then, we compared changes of genotoxicity, HRQL and survival between the two groups. As a result, red ginseng reduced micronuclei yield in comparison with placebo despite no difference of binucleated cells index. Although red ginseng increased serum levels of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase significantly, they were within the normal value. Moreover, there were no differences in adverse events between placebo and red ginseng groups. In terms of HRQL, red ginseng was associated with improved emotional functioning and decreased symptoms of fatigue, nausea and vomiting, and dyspnea, reduced anxiety and interference affecting life and improved daytime somnolence. However, there was no effect of red ginseng on prognosis of EOC. Conclusively, red ginseng may be safe and effective to reduce genotoxicity and improve HRQL despite no benefit of survival in patients with EOC who received chemotherapy.

Natural Product Interventions for Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy-Induced Side Effects

“…Its anticancer mechanisms mainly include cell cycle arrest, apoptosis/paraptosis induction, and angiogenesis inhibition (Wang et al, 2016 ). Recently, a randomized double blind placebo-controlled trial demonstrates that Red Ginseng decreases symptom of nausea, vomiting, dyspnea and fatigue, and its efficacy and safety can improve life quality in patients receiving six cycles of adjuvant taxane- and platinum-based chemotherapy after cytoreductive surgery (Kim H. S. et al, 2017 ). A phase II randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study shows that safe and well-tolerated 6-gingerol improves the overall complete response rate in nausea and vomiting, appetite as well as quality of life in cancer patients with surgical resection of primary tumor and moderately to highly emetogenic adjuvant chemotherapy (Konmun et al, 2017 ), further demonstrating that ginger supplementation can significantly reduce the severity of chemotherapy-induced nausea in adult cancer patients (Ryan et al, 2012 ).…”

Role of ginsenosides in reactive oxygen species-mediated anticancer therapy

“…In a more recent randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial, 30 patients with epithelial ovarian cancer in Korea were given placebo or red ginseng (3000 mg/day) for three months. The results suggested that red ginseng may be capable of decreasing genotoxicity and enhancing health-related quality of life despite no benefit of survival in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer who received chemotherapy [ 36 ].…”

Effects of compound K, an enteric microbiome metabolite of ginseng, in the treatment of inflammation associated colon cancer

“…Ginseng is one of the herbs that proved to be beneficial for the treatment. According to many studies, ginseng is active in maintaining health and effective in the prevention and treatment of cancers by different mechanisms ( 23 – 25 ). Ginseng is not only effective in reducing chemotherapy side effects and improving the quality of patient's life, it also plays a crucial role in inflammation reduction and thereby reduces the risk of cancer ( 26 , 27 ).…”