Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jul 6, 2023; 11(19): 4670-4676
Published online Jul 6, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i19.4670
Metastatic colon cancer treated using traditional Chinese medicine combined with chemotherapy: A case report
Chen-Geng Deng, Meng-Yuan Tang, Xue Pan, Zhao-Heng Liu
Chen-Geng Deng, Zhao-Heng Liu, School of Life Sciences, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 102401, China
Meng-Yuan Tang, Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing 100029, China
Xue Pan, Post-Doctoral Mobile Station,Guang’anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, China
Author contributions: Deng CG, Tang MY, and Pan X contributed equally to this work; Deng CG drafted and edited the original manuscript; Tang MY edited the manuscript and analyzed the data; Pan X collected the data; Liu ZH treated the patient and supervised the study; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81904049; Beijing Natural Science Foundation, No. 7202118; The National Traditional Chinese Medicine Inheritance Innovation Project, No. ZYYCXTD-C-202006-9; and The Basic Scientific Research Foundation of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, No. 2021-JYB-XJSJJ-033.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent for the publication of medical information was obtained from the patient.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Zhao-Heng Liu, MD, Assistant Professor, School of Life Sciences, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Northeast Corner of the Intersection of Yangguang South Street and Baiyang East Road, Fangshan District, Beijing 102401, China. zliu@bucm.edu.cn
Received: February 20, 2023
Peer-review started: February 20, 2023
First decision: March 24, 2023
Revised: April 12, 2023
Accepted: May 26, 2023
Article in press: May 26, 2023
Published online: July 6, 2023
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Colon cancer (CC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related morbidity and mortality worldwide. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is widely used in the treatment of various chronic diseases. CC easily metastasizes and results in high morbidity and mortality rates.

CASE SUMMARY

A 71-year-old man with a 12-year history of old myocardial infarction and a 7-year history of type 2 diabetes mellitus was diagnosed with CC and underwent right hemicolectomy 1 year ago. Tumor biopsy revealed moderately poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. Subsequently, chemotherapy with oxaliplatin and paclitaxel was administered. Anastomosis recurrence and pelvic metastasis were noted 37 d later. The patient received eight 21-d cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy with oxaliplatin and capecitabine after recurrence. However, the tumor persisted, and chemotherapy-related liver damage developed gradually. Thus, he was advised to take TCM for the recurrence and pelvic metastasis. The patient’s metastatic CC was cured after receiving TCM combined with long-term chemotherapy.

CONCLUSION

TCM may be an effective adjunct therapy in the treatment of patients with metastatic CC.

Keywords: Metastatic colon cancer, Traditional Chinese medicine, Tumor, Pelvic metastasis, Chemotherapy, Case report

Core Tip: Herein, we report a case of a patient with metastatic colon cancer (CC) who underwent right hemicolectomy and received 8 cycles of chemotherapy coupled with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). After treatment, the patient was cured and there was no recurrence during the subsequent follow-up. We believe that TCM can provide a new postoperative treatment modality for CC, as the patient's enteroscopy revealed that the anastomotic stoma of the transverse colon had become smooth 7 mo after treatment.