A clinical study of acupuncture-point injection of rhG-CSF in preventing leukopenia caused by chemotherapy in patients with cancer

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and the side effect of acupuncture-point injection of rhG-CSF (recombinant human granulocyte colony stimulating factor)in preventing leukopenia caused by chemotherapy in cancer patients.Methods 60 patients were randomly divided into tow groups. There were 10 patients with digestive tract malignant tumor and 10 patients with non-small cell lung cancer and 10 patients with breast cancer in each group. Every patient received acupuncture-point injection of 150μg rhG-CSF per day on next five days after 24 hours of chemotherapy in one group and subcutaneous injection of the same dosage in the other group. The changes of WBC (leukocytes) and ANC (absolute neutrophil counts) in two groups were compared.Results Of 60 patients, one patient was evacuated for some reasons in the group of subcutaneous injection; the rest 59 patients had completed treatment successfully. The minimums ANC mean and the ANC decrease lasting time and the ANC decrease degree and the changes of ANC mean were similar in two groups. Acupuncture-point injection can decrease the occurrences of injection site indurations, but there were no changes on the other side effects.Conclusion The method of acupuncture-point injection had no superiority than subcutaneous injection in preventing leukopenia caused by chemotherapy in patients with cancer, when the dosage of rhG-CSF was 150μg.