It’s hard when you read reports like this in the newspaper saying that there are other ways of treating your side effects. But, our advice is to avoid Chinese herbal remedies during your chemotherapy. Women should also avoid taking them for a few weeks before and after their treatment finishes. At the moment there is no evidence that Chinese herbs are safe to take with any conventional cancer treatment (not just chemotherapy).

A few small studies have looked into the effects of taking Chinese herbs at the same time as chemotherapy for breast cancer. A review, called a Cochrane review, has looked at the results of all of these studies to see what evidence there is that Chinese herbs may be helpful. They found that taking Chinese herbs may lessen some side effects of chemotherapy.

The side effects the studies looked at were; tiredness (fatigue), sickness, sore mouth and having low levels of white blood cells. In general the Chinese herbs didn’t help to reduce fatigue, sickness or mouth soreness. But, in some studies, women taking Chinese herbs had higher levels of white blood cells during treatment than women taking chemotherapy on its own. So, Chinese herbs may help to protect white blood cell levels during chemotherapy. Two studies also suggested that the quality of life of women may be improved by taking the herbs during treatment. However, the reviewers pointed out that none of the studies were well planned so we can’t be sure if these results are reliable or whether the herbs really give these benefits.

Although there was no evidence from the studies that taking Chinese herbs causes problems we also can’t be sure that taking them during treatment is okay. This is because the studies didn’t look at whether using the herbs during treatment could interfere with how well the chemotherapy worked. We already know that some herbal drugs can interfere with the way that cancer treatments work. Taking them may cause a treatment to work less well or may make treatment side effects worse. For example, the herb St John’s wort, used to treat depression, can lower the levels of certain chemotherapy drugs.  Some herbal treatments might make the body break down chemotherapy faster. If you take them this may mean that you get rid of the chemotherapy before it’s had enough time to work properly. So, before we can be sure if it is safe to take Chinese herbs with chemotherapy we need large randomised clinical trials to look into this.

In the meantime, if you are struggling with side effects from chemotherapy, your doctor or specialist nurse may be able to suggest other ways of treating these. It’s important to let them know what a difficult time you’re having. There are also some complementary therapies, such as acupuncture, that can help reduce some of the side effects of cancer treatment. If you’re thinking of taking any herbal drugs, or any supplements, while you are having chemotherapy (or other cancer treatments) it’s important to discuss it with your cancer specialist first.

Reference

• Zhang M et al. 2007. Chinese medicinal herbs to treat the side-effects of chemotherapy in breast cancer patients. Read online