[Clinical study on effect of combined treatment with shenlong oral liquid and radiotherapy in treating nasopharyngeal carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of Shenlong Oral Liquid (SLOL) combined with radiotherapy in treating nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). METHODS: Effects of the combination therapy, including clinical effect, changes of cellular immunity and side effects, in treating 60 NPC patients (treated group) were observed and compared with those of the other 60 patients treated with radiotherapy alone (control group). RESULTS: (1) The side effect of radiation in the treated group was lower than that in the control group significantly (P < 0.05); (2) The immediate regression rate of nasopharyngeal and neck tumor in the two groups was not different significantly (P > 0.05); (3) The doses for complete remission of nasopharyngeal and neck tumor in the treated group was lower than that in the control group (P < 0.01); (4) No change of T-lymphocyte subsets was found in the treated group after treatment, but in the control group, OKT3, OKT4 and OKT4/OKT8 ratio were markedly decreased (P < 0.05); (5) The survival rate in the treated group was higher than that in the control group, but without statistical significance (P = 0.0518). CONCLUSION: The combination therapy of NPC by SLOL and radiotherapy is able to reduce side effect of radiotherapy, improve the cellular immunity, reduce the dose of radiation for tumor remission and enhance the therapeutic effect of radiotherapy, it might raise the survival rate of NPC patients.