Cargando…

Antrodia Cinnamomea Prolongs Survival in a Patient with Small Cell Lung Cancer

Introduction: Antrodia cinnamomea (AC) is an extremely rare medicinal fungus native to forested regions of Taiwan. It possesses numerous biological activities, especially anti-tumor effects shown in various in vitro cancer cells and in vivo animal models. However, there are few clinical reports abou...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Long, Huei, Hu, Chi-Tan, Weng, Ching-Feng
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6843373/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31561410
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/medicina55100640
_version_ 1783468199957757952
author Long, Huei
Hu, Chi-Tan
Weng, Ching-Feng
author_facet Long, Huei
Hu, Chi-Tan
Weng, Ching-Feng
author_sort Long, Huei
collection PubMed
description Introduction: Antrodia cinnamomea (AC) is an extremely rare medicinal fungus native to forested regions of Taiwan. It possesses numerous biological activities, especially anti-tumor effects shown in various in vitro cancer cells and in vivo animal models. However, there are few clinical reports about AC as a treatment for cancer patients. This report attempts to demonstrate the therapeutic effect of dish-cultured AC (DAC) on a small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patient taken orally for an extended duration. Patient concerns: An 88-year-old male with a history of diabetes mellitus and hypertension visited the outpatient department with the symptoms of dyspnea and a cough for two weeks. After a diagnosis of SCLC, the patient declined both chemotherapy and radiotherapy because of the side effects and only accepted supportive care without additional therapy. Diagnosis: Limited-stage SCLC (T4N2M1a, stage IV) after the chest radiograph, computed tomography-guided biopsy, and pathological diagnosis. Interventions: The patient was prescribed DAC with an increasing dosage, from 5 g/d up to 10 g/d DAC, for six months, without radiation or chemotherapy treatment. Outcomes: DAC caused the tumor to shrink substantially. Surprisingly, the patient survived for 32 months without relapse after six months of DAC treatment. Laboratory examinations indicated that the patient’s health had improved significantly, reverting to near normal levels. Notably, he had a good quality of life with a high Barthel index score. Unfortunately, this patient died of septic shock caused by acute cholangitis. Conclusion: DAC may exert an anti-cancer effect, which can lead to tumor regression. This is supposed to be achieved by the combined DAC’s immunomodulatory, anti-angiogenic, anti-metastatic, anti-proliferative, and pro-apoptotic effects mediated through multiple signaling pathways. We propose that DAC can be used as a complementary medicine to prolong the life expectancy and improve the life quality of SCLC patients.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6843373
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2019
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-68433732019-11-25 Antrodia Cinnamomea Prolongs Survival in a Patient with Small Cell Lung Cancer Long, Huei Hu, Chi-Tan Weng, Ching-Feng Medicina (Kaunas) Case Report Introduction: Antrodia cinnamomea (AC) is an extremely rare medicinal fungus native to forested regions of Taiwan. It possesses numerous biological activities, especially anti-tumor effects shown in various in vitro cancer cells and in vivo animal models. However, there are few clinical reports about AC as a treatment for cancer patients. This report attempts to demonstrate the therapeutic effect of dish-cultured AC (DAC) on a small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patient taken orally for an extended duration. Patient concerns: An 88-year-old male with a history of diabetes mellitus and hypertension visited the outpatient department with the symptoms of dyspnea and a cough for two weeks. After a diagnosis of SCLC, the patient declined both chemotherapy and radiotherapy because of the side effects and only accepted supportive care without additional therapy. Diagnosis: Limited-stage SCLC (T4N2M1a, stage IV) after the chest radiograph, computed tomography-guided biopsy, and pathological diagnosis. Interventions: The patient was prescribed DAC with an increasing dosage, from 5 g/d up to 10 g/d DAC, for six months, without radiation or chemotherapy treatment. Outcomes: DAC caused the tumor to shrink substantially. Surprisingly, the patient survived for 32 months without relapse after six months of DAC treatment. Laboratory examinations indicated that the patient’s health had improved significantly, reverting to near normal levels. Notably, he had a good quality of life with a high Barthel index score. Unfortunately, this patient died of septic shock caused by acute cholangitis. Conclusion: DAC may exert an anti-cancer effect, which can lead to tumor regression. This is supposed to be achieved by the combined DAC’s immunomodulatory, anti-angiogenic, anti-metastatic, anti-proliferative, and pro-apoptotic effects mediated through multiple signaling pathways. We propose that DAC can be used as a complementary medicine to prolong the life expectancy and improve the life quality of SCLC patients. MDPI 2019-09-26 /pmc/articles/PMC6843373/ /pubmed/31561410 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/medicina55100640 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Case Report
Long, Huei
Hu, Chi-Tan
Weng, Ching-Feng
Antrodia Cinnamomea Prolongs Survival in a Patient with Small Cell Lung Cancer
title Antrodia Cinnamomea Prolongs Survival in a Patient with Small Cell Lung Cancer
title_full Antrodia Cinnamomea Prolongs Survival in a Patient with Small Cell Lung Cancer
title_fullStr Antrodia Cinnamomea Prolongs Survival in a Patient with Small Cell Lung Cancer
title_full_unstemmed Antrodia Cinnamomea Prolongs Survival in a Patient with Small Cell Lung Cancer
title_short Antrodia Cinnamomea Prolongs Survival in a Patient with Small Cell Lung Cancer
title_sort antrodia cinnamomea prolongs survival in a patient with small cell lung cancer
topic Case Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6843373/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31561410
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/medicina55100640
work_keys_str_mv AT longhuei antrodiacinnamomeaprolongssurvivalinapatientwithsmallcelllungcancer
AT huchitan antrodiacinnamomeaprolongssurvivalinapatientwithsmallcelllungcancer
AT wengchingfeng antrodiacinnamomeaprolongssurvivalinapatientwithsmallcelllungcancer